Web services message processing runtime framework

ABSTRACT

A method is described that involves processing a Web services message within an object oriented runtime environment. The processing involves executing a plurality of protocols to support a Web service that the message pertains to. Each one of the protocols perform one or more operations that contribute to a different part of the processing. The executing is hibernated by storing state information of the protocols externally from the protocols. The executing is resumed by loading the saved state information back into the protocols. The processing also involves identifying a message key within the message and using the message key to identify an endpoint method for the message. The method also involves executing the endpoint method to generate a response message to the message.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The field of invention relates generally to the software arts, and, morespecifically, to a Web services message processing runtime framework

BACKGROUND Web Services

The term “Web services” is understood to mean a standards-based, serviceoriented architecture (SOA) than can be used to engage in businessrelationships (e.g., buying and selling) in a partially or whollyautomated fashion over a public network such as the Internet (“theWeb”). Standards bodies and interoperability organizations that havecontributed to the Web services effort include the World Wide WebConsortium (W3C), the Organization for the Advancement of StructuredInformation Standards (OASIS), the Internet Engineering Task Force(IETF) and the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I).

FIG. 1 shows a Web services model 100 that includes a registry 101, aservice provider 102 and a service consumer 103. A service consumer 103,or “service requester”, is generally understood to be an entity thatseeks and (in cases where a suitable Web service is found) uses aparticular Web service through a network 104. The registry 101 includeslistings of various “available” services, and, may assist the serviceconsumer 103 in searching for a suitable service provider based on theweb servicing needs of the service consumer 103. A service provider 102is the provider of one or more Web services that can be accessed overthe network 104. Because of the vast expanse of the Internet andinterest in automated business engagements, many registries, serviceconsumers and service providers may be in operation at any instant oftime.

Presently, the responsibilities of the most prevalent registry function101 that is associated with the Web services effort are defined invarious Universal Discovery, Description and Integration (UDDI)specifications provided by uddi.org. Besides providing listings ofavailable services, a UDDI registry 101 may also make available to aservice consumer 103 additional details that pertain to any particularWeb service such as: 1) the location of the Web service (e.g., its URIspecified by a specific network destination address or name); 2) thecapabilities of the Web service (e.g., specific methods that aresupported by the Web service and that may be called upon by the serviceconsumer), and, 3) communication semantics needed for invoking the Webservice through the network 104 (e.g., the structure of a messagingformat and/or protocol needed to properly communicate with the Webservice).

According to one widely adopted approach, such “additional details” aredescribed in Web Services Directory Language (WSDL) text documentswritten in eXtensible Markup Language (XML). Here, for example, for eachWeb service that the registry 101 maintains a listing of, the registry101 also maintains a WSDL document that describes the location,capabilities and communication semantics of the Web service. Presently,a WSDL document for a particular Web service is expected to include an“abstract interface” description of the Web service (which includes theWeb service's methods and the data passed between the Web serviceprovider and Web service consumer) and a “concrete implementation”description of the Web service (which includes specific protocol anddata format specifications for communicating with the Web service(referred to as a “binding”) and the location of the Web service(referred to as a “port”)).

According to another widely adopted approach, with respect to the actualcommunication that occurs between the service consumer 103 and theservice provider 102, such communication is implemented through anexchange of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) text messages writtenin XML. A SOAP message, is viewed as being contained within an envelope105 that further contains a header 106 (which may be optional) and abody 107.

For a particular Web service, the header 106 is typically used to pass“control” information associated with the consumer's Web serviceengagement with the Web service provider (e.g., information used forperforming encryption/decryption and/or signature checking, informationused to ensure proper ordering of SOAP messages, information thatidentifies the ultimate destination of the SOAP message, etc.). The body107 is used to pass more “substantive” information associated with theservice consumer's Web service experience (e.g., a specific method callfrom the service consumer to the service provider, or, a specificresponse generated by the service provider in response to a specificmethod call).

Note that SOAP messages are typically deemed to be insensitive to theparticular type of transport protocol used to transport them through thenetwork 104. Thus, even though most SOAP messages may be appended withan HTTP header, a header specific to a different type of transportprotocol (e.g., HTTPS, SMTP, etc.) could be appended to the SOAPenvelope 105 instead (e.g., if the service provider, service consumerand/or intermediary nodes were adapted to use the different type ofprotocol).

In basic cases where a service provider 102 receives a SOAP message sentby a service consumer 103, or, where a service consumer 103 receives aSOAP message sent by a service provider 102, the body of the SOAPmessage 107 essentially represents the purpose of the communicationbetween the service provider 102 and service consumer 103. For instance,in the case of a SOAP message being sent by a service consumer 103 andreceived by a service provider 103, the purpose of the SOAP message maybe that the service requester 103 desires that the service requester 102perform a specific method. In this case, the body of the SOAP message107 is apt to contain both a request to perform the specific method andany input parameters that are both needed by the method and determinedby the service requester 103.

Presently, largely because of its versatility, the SOAP message isregarded as a primary unit of information transfer between a serviceprovider 102 and a service consumer 103 in a Web services environment.Here, unlike many other kinds of messaging protocols, existing SOAPmessage specifications define a format that is relatively “abstract” interms of its content and/or organizational requirements. Essentially, itis believed that a relatively abstract messaging format definition lendsitself to having the versatility needed to support business relationshipmodels of all different kinds (e.g., in terms of business relationshiptype and procedure), which, in turn, represents an overarching designgoal of those designing the Web services infrastructure.

Nevertheless, for many types of business relationships, too muchabstractness may correspond to the absence of specific structure deemednecessary to implement a truly workable automated business practice. Forinstance, a significant number of business models are expected torequire confidentiality and/or assurances as to whom its SOAP messageoriented communication is being entertained between. A significantnumber of business models are also expected to require guarantees thatreceived SOAP messages will be processed in a specific order. Furtherstill, a significant number of business models may desire to have theend-to-end communication path between service provider and serviceconsumer be supported by different types of transport protocols (e.g., afirst leg that is transported by HTTP and a second leg that istransported by SMTP).

Returning briefly to the concept of versatility, however, note that italso expected that significant numbers of business models will notrequire one or more of the above described features. The Web servicesarchitecture has therefore evolved into a scheme that supports“extensions” to the SOAP messaging format that are available if desired,but, are not required to be SOAP compatible.

For instance, consistent with the description provided in the paragraphjust above the immediately preceding paragraph: 1) a “WS-Security”extension has been defined that specifies information to be containedwithin a SOAP message header 106 if encryption/decryption and/orauthentication procedures are to be performed upon a SOAP message; 2) a“WS-Reliable Messaging” extension has been defined that specifiesinformation to be contained within a SOAP message header 106 if properordering of SOAP messages is desired; and, 3) a “WS-Addressing”extension has been defined that specifies information to be containedwithin a SOAP header 106 that describes the destination of the SOAPmessage in a transport independent fashion. Those of ordinary skill willrecognize any additional features of the above described extensions aswell as any other extensions that are presently in existence or may bein existence in the future.

Thus, in order to effect a particular Web services businessrelationship, those SOAP extensions deemed appropriate for therelationship are effectively implemented into the procedures of therelationship by enhancing the SOAP message header 106 with thecorresponding information of each appropriate extension, and, any otherSOAP extensions that are not deemed appropriate may simply be ignored(in which case no extension specific enhancement is made to the SOAPheader 106). Likewise, in order to support the versatility of the Webservices concept, yet provide for sufficient structure and definition ofit's basic messaging format where appropriate, SOAP extensions areimplemented in various combinations to effect a broad spectrum ofdifferent business relationship models that the Web servicesinfrastructure is capable of supporting.

Prior Art Web Service Message Processing Runtime Framework

FIGS. 2 through 5 depict pertinent aspects of a prior art runtimeframework for processing Web services messages. FIG. 2 shows basicstructural aspects of the framework. FIG. 3 shows a basic methodperformed by the framework. The runtime framework is implemented inobject-oriented software written in the Java programming language.

The runtime framework includes a runtime object 211 that essentiallybehaves as a manager for the overall process. The runtime object 211calls upon, at appropriate instances, various other object-orientedstructures in order to fully process a message. These variousobject-oriented structures include: 1) data that describes theapplicable Web service 413 (referred to as “Web service data”); 2)information specific to the particular process run being executed(referred to as “context”) 514; 3) a protocol stack 215 that containsthe object-oriented program code for processing message headerinformation; 4) an implementation container 219 that contains theobject-oriented program code (in the form of a Java servlet orEnterprise Java Bean (EJB)) for processing message body (or “payload”)information; 5) an implementation container manager 217 for providing aninstance of the implementation container 219 to the runtime object 211;and, 6) a transport binding object 218 for orchestrating the conversionof the content of a message between its transported format (e.g., XML inthe case of a SOAP message) and Java object form. A comment worth notingis that, as described in more detail below, the implementation containerand implementation container manager are only instantiated on theservice provider side. On the service consumer side, the implementationcontainer is essentially replaced by the software running on the webservice that is using the web service.

Three different transport binding objects were designed: 1) a SOAPtransport binding for processing SOAP messages; 2) an HTTP transportbinding for processing HTTP messages; and 3) a MIME transport bindingfor processing MIME messages. Those or ordinary skill will recognizethat HTTP and MIME are typically regarded as “lower level”transportation technologies that can be used to “carry” a SOAP message.For example, a SOAP message may be instantiated in the payload of anHTTP packet. In this case, in order to process the complete message, theHTTP transport binding is used to perform HTTP related transport formatconversion functions on the message and the SOAP transport binding isused to perform SOAP transport format conversion functions on themessage.

Here, the transport format conversion functions performed by thetransport bindings can generally be viewed as orchestrating theconversion of the content of a message between its format duringtransportation (e.g., XML in the case of a SOAP message) and the Javaobjects that are used by the runtime framework that contain suchcontent. The conversion may also involve comprehending the packetstructure of the transported message as well (e.g., understanding thestructure of a SOAP message header and/or body in the case of a SOAPmessage). For simplicity, amongst the various transport bindings, thepresent discussion elaborates mostly on the use of the SOAP transportbinding 218. Here, it is worthwhile to note that, amongst the structuresobserved in FIG. 2, only the SOAP transport binding 218 is specific toany particular messaging format. As such, the runtime framework as awhole is largely independent of message format type and is thereforecapable of processing Web service messages for practically any messagetype (e.g., simply by introducing a transport binding specific to anyparticular, desired message type).

The prior art runtime framework is not only easily applied to any typeof message format but is also largely independent of whether it is beingimplemented by a service provider or a service consumer. Here, theprocess performed by the runtime framework can largely be viewed asbeing responsible for: 1) processing a received message 222; and, 2)generating a response message 223 that is sent as a response to thereceived message. From this perspective, the process is easily extendedto either provider-side or consumer-side Web service functions, because,in the case of a service provider, the “received message” is simply amessage sent by a service consumer and the “response message” is simplya message generated by the service provider, while, by contrast, in thecase of a service consumer, the received message is sent by a serviceprovider and the response message is generated by the service consumer.

To be even more specific, referring briefly to FIG. 2, the protocolstack 215 corresponds to the program code used to: 1) process anobject-oriented representation of the received message's headerinformation; and, 2) generate an object-oriented representation of theheader information for the response message. Moreover, theimplementation container 219 contains the program code used to: 1)process an object-oriented representation of the received message'sbody; and, 2) generate an object-oriented representation of the body forthe response message. Although different protocol stack program code andimplementation container program code is appropriate as between aservice provider and service consumer (e.g., because a service providerwill generate “different” messages than a service consumer), thearchitecture of the prior art runtime framework is nevertheless largelyindifferent as to whether its application is for service provider-sidefunctions or service consumer-side functions.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the processing of a message begins after alower level transport layer that is responsible for handling lower levelcommunication with the sender of the message forwards the receivedmessage 222 to the runtime framework. Here, the transport layer passes aTransportID value 210 to the runtime object 211. The TransportIDuniquely identifies the URI of the specific Web service provider orconsumer that the received message 222 is directed to, and, may havebeen included in a lower level transport layer header that was appendedto the message as it traveled through the network (e.g., in the case ofHTTP transport, the TransportID value 210 may be the URL of the Webservice, found in the HTTP header that the SOAP message 222 is directedto).

A Web service data repository 212 that is available to the runtimeobject 211 is configured to maintain a unique collection of data foreach Web service that the runtime framework of FIG. 2 is supposed tosupport (hereinafter referred to as a Web service's “Web service data”).FIG. 4 shows a depiction of the Web service data 413 that is maintainedfor a particular Web service. According to the depiction of FIG. 4, theWeb service data 413 includes: 1) a listing of the various “protocols”(referred to as a “protocol stack”) that are to be invoked whenprocessing a message header for the particular Web service 420 (theprotocols themselves are described in more detail further below withrespect to the protocol stack 215 of FIG. 2 and process 303 of FIG. 3);and, 2) for service provider side implementations, the identity 422 of a“container” that contains the endpoint identified in 2) above (which isreferred to as the implementation container 219). For service consumerside implementations, identity 422 identifies the software thread,component or other entity running on the consumer side that is using theweb service.

The repository 212 may also be implemented as part of a Web servicesregistry that contains WDSL documents describing each of the Webservices that the prior art runtime framework is expected to support.Notably, the Web service data 413 that is maintained for each of thevarious Web services are different data structures than the WDSLdocuments that are maintained for each of the various Web services.

In response to the runtime object's reception of the TransportID value210, the runtime object 211 forwards the TransportID value 210 to therepository 212. The repository 212 is configured to correlate a specificTransportID value to a specific Web service's Web service data 413, and,moreover, in response to its receiving of a TransportID value from theruntime object 211, return to the runtime object 211 the Web servicedata 413 for the Web service that the TransportID corresponds to. Thisprocess is generally depicted as process 301 in FIG. 3. Here, as part ofthe initial configuration of the prior art runtime framework, aparticular Web service is identified with a particular URI (e.g.,destination address (e.g., URL) or name).

After the runtime object 211 has access to the Web service data 413 forthe Web service that the received message 222 to be processed isdirected to, the runtime object 211 constructs 302 another collection ofdata, referred to as “context” 514, that acts as a kind of “scratch pad”for the runtime object 211 (and other structures such as the transportbinding and endpoints) to store values to and retrieve values from asthe prior art runtime framework runs though its processing routine.

Here, unlike the Web service data 413 maintained by the repository 212,which can be viewed as a quasi-permanent description of the Web servicethat exists both before and after the processing applied to a particularmessage, the context information 514, by contrast, can be viewed as datathat pertains to the specific process run applied to a specific receivedand response message pair 222, 223. Better said, the Web service data413 for a particular Web service is “re-used” each time a message isreceived for that Web service. By contrast, for each process run, acontext 514 is newly created approximately at the beginning of the runand is later extinguished approximately at the end of the run.

FIG. 5 shows a depiction of the “context” 514 that is constructed by theprior art runtime framework. The context includes: 1) an object 520 thatis essentially an object oriented representation of the receivedmessage, hereinafter referred to as the received message object 520; 2)a runtime counter 521 whose value essentially defines “where” theruntime process currently “is” amongst its various processes; 3) areference 522 to the applicable Web service data 413 (as discussed abovewith respect to FIG. 4) that is being used for the process run; 4) aresponse message object 524 that is essentially an object orientedrepresentation of the response message (which does not begin to bedefined until the endpoint method is performed); and, 5) “method calls”527 that are used by any of the protocols 215 that need to invoke use ofthe runtime object 211.

With respect to the received message object 520, during the initialbuilding of the context 302, the runtime object 211 calls upon thetransport binding object 218 to generate the received message object520. Here, as discussed above, the SOAP transport binding object 218 isan object that deals with the structure of a SOAP message, and,therefore, has access to the classfile needed to produce an object (themessage object 520) whose organization and structure is patterned afterthe organization and structure of a SOAP message. During the initialbuilding of the context 302, the received message object 520 that isloaded into the context 514 is akin to an “empty template” whosestructure is consistent with a SOAP message (i.e., a header portion anda body portion) but whose substantive content is empty or “blank” (i.e.,no specific items of data from the received message are in the messageobject 520). The message object also contains certain “readers” (or“parsers”) and “writers” that, in the case of a SOAP message, are usedby the transport binding object 218 to covert message content betweenXML and Java object form.

The runtime object next calls upon the message object 520 to initiateits being loaded with the specific header information 523 that existswithin the received SOAP message 222. In order to perform this“deserialization” process, the transport binding object 218 invokes theuse of a Document Object Model (DOM) parser found within the messageobject 520. A DOM parser creates a collection of “element” objectsorganized into a “tree”, where, the element objects in the treerepresent the elements in the parsed text document (in this case, theheader portion of the received XML SOAP message), and, the structure ofthe tree (i.e., its branches and sub-branches) reflects the structure ofthe text document (e.g., a children element branches from its parentelement). Essentially, the transport binding object 218 through its useof the DOM parser writes the various elements in the header portion ofthe received message 222 as a tree of object oriented DOM Elementswithin the header portion 523 of the message object 520.

Referring to FIG. 3, after the context 514 for the process run iscreated 302 including the building of the header portion 523 of themessage object 520, the header information taken 523 from the SOAPmessage is processed 303 by the “stack” of protocols 215 that aredefined in the Web service data 420. A single protocol is essentially abody of object oriented program code whose purpose is to perform somekind of isolated, “control” operation on a received/response messagepair, such as, processing a specific category of the received/responsemessage's header information. With respect to the prior art runtimeframework, there were three such protocols: 1) the WS-Security protocol;2) the Headers protocol (used on the consumer side only); and, 3) theMessage ID protocol.

The functionality of the WS-Security protocol was designed to bepractically coextensive with the functionality introduced by the WSSecurity extension to the SOAP message format described in the precedingsection (i.e., encryption/decryption and signature checking functions).The Headers protocol was designed to permit a consumer side endpointand/or another protocol executed on the consumer side to: a) comprehendat least a portion of a received SOAP message's header information;and/or, b) write at least a portion of a response SOAP message's headerinformation. The Message ID protocol was designed to provide (on theconsumer side) and extract (on the provider side) a SOAP header elementcontaining a UID value (similar to <wsa:MessageID> as described in theWS-Addressing specification).

In this regard, different combinations of protocols are used toimplement customized SOAP message control treatment on a per Web servicebasis. For instance, if a first Web service requires some kind ofsecurity operation but does not require any comprehension/manipulationof a SOAP message header by the Web service's endpoint, the protocolstack for the first Web service would include the WS-Security protocolbut not the Headers protocol.

As another example, if a second Web service does not require any kind ofsecurity operation but does require some kind ofcomprehension/manipulation of a SOAP message header by the Web service'sendpoint on the consumer side, the protocol stack 215 for the second Webservice on the consumer side would not include the WS-Security protocolbut would include the Headers protocol. In this manner, by essentiallygranularizing various control operations into separate isolatedprotocols, customized control treatment can easily be effected on a perWeb service basis simply by, for each Web service, combining thoseprotocols corresponding to the Web service's desired control operationsinto the Web service's protocol stack 215.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the execution 303 of the protocol stack 215is sequential in the sense that, for example: 1) the first protocol216_1 listed in the protocol stack is executed; 2) then, the secondprotocol 216_2 listed in the protocol stack is executed, . . . , 3)then, the last protocol 216_N listed in the protocol stack is executed.Thus, the sequence of flow observed in flow 224 corresponds to theprotocol execution sequence when the header of a received message isbeing processed. Flow 224 may therefore be referred to as the “inbound”protocol execution flow 224. Note that, with the prior art runtimeframework having only four protocols, N could be any number less than orequal to four.

As part of the generation of the response message that is sent inresponse to the received message (described in more detail furtherbelow), the protocol stack 215 is executed in the reverse order relativeto the inbound flow 224 (as depicted by reverse or “outbound” processflow 225). In this case, execution of the protocol stack in the outboundflow 225 builds the header content of the response message.

The runtime object 211 is responsible for controlling the correctprotocol execution sequence. Referring to inbound flow 224, the runtimeobject 211 refers to the protocol stack definition 420 in the Webservice data 413 in order to identify the first protocol 216_1 in theprotocol stack 215, and, sends a “HANDLE_REQUEST” command to the firstprotocol 216_1. If the first protocol 216_1 is able to properly executeits operation without any problems, the protocol 216_1 forwards a “NEXT”response to the runtime object 211. The NEXT response signifies to theruntime object 211 that the processing of the received message shouldproceed to the “next” protocol.

In this case, the runtime object 211 identifies the second protocol fromthe Web service data 413 and issues a HANDLE_REQUEST command to thesecond protocol 216_2. In cases where no problems arise, the processcontinues until the Nth protocol responds to its HANDLE_REQUEST commandwith a NEXT response. The runtime object 211 then continues with process304.

In cases where a protocol discovers some kind of problem, a “BACK”response is sent to the runtime object 211 through the context. In asituation where a problem is discovered by a protocol, the firstprotocol to discover a problem builds (with a “token writer”) a “fault”message body that addresses the problem for an outbound, responsemessage, and, sends a “BACK” response to the runtime object 211 throughthe context.

The BACK response essentially triggers an outbound flow through theprotocol stack in reverse order relative to the inbound flow. Forinstance, if the third protocol in the inbound flow discovered a problemand responded with a BACK command, the runtime object 211 would send,through the context 514, a “HANDLE_RESPONSE” command to the secondprotocol in the protocol stack. The second protocol would then build itscontribution to the header content for the response message. The processwould then be repeated a final time for the first protocol. A responsemessage 223 having the fault message body built by the first protocoland header content built by the second and first protocols wouldthereafter be sent to the service consumer.

Returning to the remainder of the process after successful executionthrough the protocol stack 302 in the inbound direction, the runtimeobject 211 next invokes the transport binding object 218 to assist inthe determination of which “endpoint method” is appropriate forgenerating a response in object oriented form that is to be convertedinto the body of the response message that is sent to the serviceconsumer.

The “endpoint” of a Web service provider is essentially the portion ofthe service provider's software that is responsible for, in acting as aWeb service, taking appropriate action in response to the specificcontent contained within the body of a message that was sent by aservice consumer (e.g., performing some act that the targeted Webservice is supposed to perform (e.g., placing an order) and thengenerating an object oriented representation of the body of a “response”message that is to be sent to the service consumer). Thus, a Webservice's substantive processes (i.e., those relating to the body ofit's messages) are essentially defined by its endpoint's methods. Asmentioned above, in the prior art runtime framework, on the serviceprovider side, a Web service's endpoint corresponds to a particular Javaservlet or EJB (that may be designed to call upon “deeper/background”servlets/EJBs in order to fully implement its web servicing tasks). Bycontrast, on a service consumer side implementation of the runtimeframework, the web service endpoint is implemented by the softwarerunning at the service consumer side that is using the Web service.

The transport binding object 218, as discussed above, is essentially anoperative layer between: 1) the object-oriented environment used toapply the Web services processing to received/response message pairs;and, 2) the specific transported format of received/response messagepairs. In this case, the ability of the transport binding 218 todetermine the message body's content from its transported format is usedto characterize the body of the received message as corresponding to aspecific “message key” from amongst a collection of possible messagekeys 304.

Here, a single Web service should be able to comprehend each of a numberof “different” message bodies. For instance, in the case of a serviceprovider, the service consumer is apt to send the Web service providermessage bodies of differing content over the course of their engagement.According to the prior art runtime framework, each different type ofmessage was given a “key” value that essentially corresponded to aunique name and namespace combination given to the particular type ofmessage. Different keys were assigned for each message body type foreach Web service that the runtime framework of FIG. 2 was implemented tosupport. Thus, in principle, a unique key was given to each differenttype of message body that the runtime system might be asked to processover the course of its supporting the collection of Web service it wasconfigured to support. The message key of a message body is determinedfrom the types of elements that it contains.

In the prior art runtime framework, it is the duty of the transportbinding object 218, for each received message, to detect the specificmessage key that the body of the received message 222 corresponds to,and, a mapping registry 214 was used to identify the appropriateendpoint method for the specific key. That is, the prior art runtimeframework essentially contained a mapping 221 in registry 214 betweenthe various keys that the prior art runtime framework as a whole mightidentify, and, for each one of these keys, information concerning thespecific method to be performed by the endpoint that the receivedmessage is targeted to. This information includes: 1) the name of themethod; 2) the order and type of the objects that the method accepts asinput parameters; 3) the type of object that the method returns; and, 4)the exceptions that the method may throw in the case of a faultcondition. The transport binding 218 provides the mapping registry 214with the key value that was detected from the body of the receivedmessage 222, and, in response, the mapping registry 214 returned thecorresponding method specific information 305.

The proper handling of a received message involves some kind ofprocessing that is performed by an endpoint in response to the receivedmessage body including the generation of a “response” message body thatis sent to the service consumer as a response to the received message.In a service provider side implementation, along with the endpointmethod information being provided 305 to the transport binding object bythe mapping registry 214, the runtime object 211 also retrieves theidentity 422 of the endpoint and its container (i.e., the“implementation container”) from the Web service data 413. As describedin more detail below, the runtime object uses this information 422 tofetch both an instance of the implementation container 306 and theendpoint's classloader 307. Recalling that a service provider sideendpoint in the prior art runtime framework is a Java servlet or EJB,the implementation container in the prior art runtime frameworkcorresponds to either a J2EE Web container (if the endpoint is aservlet) or a J2EE EJB container (if the endpoint is an EJB).

As in known in the art of Java programming, a container is a type ofplatform that essentially defines the operating environment of theservlets or beans that it “contains”. The platform or operatingenvironment defined by a container is usually at least partially definedby a set of “services” (e.g., inter-bean/servlet messaging, databaseconnectivity, etc.) that the various servlets or beans within thecontainer may use (so that the expense of having the functionality builtinto the servlets/beans themselves is avoided).

The specific combinations as to which servlets are configured to operateinto which Web container(s), and, which EJBs are configured to operateinto which EJB container(s) are typically not determined until thesevarious software components are actually “deployed” by a specific Webservice provider. That is, different Web service providers may implementdifferent numbers of containers, different container names and/ordifferent container compositions even though the same core Web serviceruntime framework is being deployed.

Referring back to FIG. 4, as mentioned above, the identities of the Webservice's endpoint and implementation container are listed 422 in theWeb service data 413. Note that this listing 422 is not specified untilthe core Web service software has been deployed. The runtime object 211refers to this listing 422 and provides an implementation containermanager 217 with the identity 422 of the implementation container. Theimplementation container manager 217 is a registry that, in response toits reception of the implementation container's identity, provides theruntime object 211 with a pointer to an interface to the implementationcontainer 219. With the interface, the runtime object 211 can be said toposses an instance of the implementation container 219. The abovedescription concerning the role of the implementation container andimplementation container manager pertained to a service provider sideimplementation. By contrast, on a service consumer side implementationof the runtime framework, the web service endpoint is implemented by thesoftware running on the service consumer side that is using the webservice.

This software invokes the use of the Web service through an objectoriented “proxy” for the Web service. Proxies are well understood in theart. A proxy is essentially part of an integrated application (in thiscase, the complete Web service as provided by the service providerincluding those portions of the provided Web service that are executedon the service consumer side) that is downloaded to a remote location(in this case, from the service provider to the service consumer) sothat the remote location can call upon methods local to itself thatpertain to the application. Here, the consumer side proxy is designed toaccept a “request” message body from the consumer side endpoint alongwith a “send request” method call. In response, the proxy passes the“request” message body into the body 526 of the outbound message object529 within the consumer side framework and a “request” message is sentfrom the service consumer to the service provider. Here, the “request”message can be viewed as a response relative to the service consumerbecause (except for the first, initial message at the very beginning ofthe web service experience) the message body is essentially a responseto an earlier received message from the service provider. Processing ofreceived messages on the service consumer side merely involve passing areceived message body up to the service consumer endpoint softwarethrough the proxy. For simplicity the remainder of this discussion willfocus on the execution performed on the service provider side.

Returning then to a discussion of the process from the service providerside perspective, with an instance of the implementation container andwith knowledge of the appropriate endpoint, the runtime object 211 nextretrieves the endpoint's classloader 307 from the implementationcontainer 219 and provides it to the transport binding object 218. Afterthe transport binding object 218 has been provided with the informationspecific to the endpoint method from the mapping registry 214 and theendpoint classloader from the runtime object 211, the transport bindingobject 218 creates instances of objects to be used as input parametersfor the endpoint method. Essentially, the classloader is used toidentify a class object for each input parameter object instance to becreated. Each such class object is then used to create an “empty” inputparameter object instance. Each empty input parameter instance is“filled” with appropriate input parameter information that the transportbinding object 218 identifies from a token stream provided by a tokenreader that de-serializes the received message body 308 from its XMLformat to an object oriented token format. The transport binding object218 then provides the filled input parameter object instances to thecontext 214.

The de-serialization discussed just above is performed with an eventbased parser (also referred to as a “token reader”) rather than a DOMbased parser (as is used for the message header information as discussedabove). Reasons for parsing the message body with an event based tokenreader rather than a DOM parser include: 1) the amount of message bodyinformation is usually much greater than the amount of message headerinformation and event based parsers tend to be more faster and/or memoryconsumption efficient than DOM based parsers; 2) the information contentwithin the message header is typically unordered (e.g., as opposed tothe message body whose structure is typically strictly defined by an XMLschema) and DOM based parsers are better suited for dealing with messagecontent whose ordering is randomized. An event based parser scans a textdocument for structures that it is designed to recognize and raises anevent each time it observes any such structure. Commensurate with theevent is the presentation of an object oriented structure (referred toas a “token”) that represents the structure discovered in the document.In the prior art runtime framework there existed two different “default”token readers for two different types of XML formatting: 1) BinaryXML;and, 2) XML 1.0.

The transport binding object 218, knowing the appropriate inputparameters for the endpoint method as well as being designed to utilizethe appropriate default token reader, processes the token reader'soutput token stream and fills the endpoint method input parameterobjects with appropriate information. The input parameter objects forthe endpoint method are then passed from the transport binding object218 to the context 214. The runtime object 211 subsequently reads theinput parameters and invokes the endpoint method (which includes theinput parameter object(s) provided by the transport binding object 218)through the implementation container interface 309.

The endpoint performs whatever Web service processing flows from themethod invocation, and returns to the context 514 an object 526 thatcontains the content for the response message body (the “responsemessage body object”). The response message body object 526 is containedby a “response message” object 524 that was earlier provided to thecontext 514 by the transport binding object 218. The response messageobject 524 essentially represents the response message inobject-oriented form (similar to the received message object 522).

The runtime object 211 then invokes the transport binding object 218 to“serialize” 310 the contents of the response message body object 526body into an XML SOAP message body for the actual response message 223.Here, the transport binding object 218 uses a token writer that covertselements of the response message body object 526 into XML content thatcorresponds to the body of the actual response message 223. The runtimeobject 211 also invokes the protocol stack 215 in the “outbound” flowdirection 225 to build the response message's header as a DOM tree 528within the response message object 524. The transport binding object 218then uses a DOM writer to serialize the object-oriented DOM tree into anXML SOAP message header for the response message 223. The responsemessage 223 is then complete and is thereafter sent through a lowerlevel transport service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and notlimitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereferences indicate similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 shows a Web services model (prior art);

FIG. 2 shows a prior art Web services message processing runtimeframework (prior art);

FIG. 3 shows a prior art method that the prior art runtime framework ofFIG. 2 is designed to execute (prior art);

FIG. 4 shows Web services data used by the runtime framework of FIG. 2to describe a particular Web service (prior art);

FIG. 5 shows context information used by the runtime framework of FIG. 2to describe a particular message reception/response cycle (prior art);

FIG. 6 shows an improved Web services message processing runtimeframework;

FIG. 7 shows a method that the improved runtime framework of FIG. 6 isdesigned to execute;

FIG. 8 shows Web services data used by the runtime framework of FIG. 6to describe a particular Web service;

FIG. 9 shows context information used by the runtime framework of FIG. 6to describe a particular message reception/response cycle;

FIG. 10 shows a hibernation process that is supported by the runtimeframework of FIG. 6;

FIG. 11 shows protocols within a protocol stack externally storing theirstate information into a message reception/response cycle's context;

FIG. 12 shows a message exchange between endpoints whose messages areprocessed with a Web Services Reliable Messaging protocol;

FIG. 13 shows a hibernation sequence supported by a messaging system;

FIG. 14 depicts an exemplary hibernation flow on the outbound side for aWeb service employing state-less protocols;

FIG. 15 depicts an exemplary flow of going into hibernation on theinbound side of a received message;

FIG. 16 depicts an exemplary flow of restoring from hibernation on theinbound side;

FIG. 17 depicts inbound processing with a Headers protocol;

FIG. 18 depicts outbound processing with a Headers protocol;

FIG. 19 depicts inbound processing with a WS Addressing protocol;

FIG. 20 shows a depiction of a standardized implementation containerinterface;

FIG. 21 (prior art) shows that a protocol may desire information from areceived message body;

FIG. 22 shows an approach for providing a protocol with information froma received message body;

FIG. 23 shows an exemplary XML document containing a parent element anda corresponding token stream;

FIG. 24 shows an exemplary token consolidation process;

FIG. 25 a shows an improved token reading and consolidationarchitecture;

FIG. 25 b shows an improved token expansion and writing architecture;

FIG. 26 shows a message key extraction architecture;

FIG. 27 shows an endpoint method input parameters extractionarchitecture;

FIG. 28 shows an message body serialization architecture;

FIG. 29 shows an embodiment of a computing system.

SUMMARY

A method is described that involves causing a received Web service'smessage body to be de-serialized into an object oriented token streamwith an event based reader and identifying a Web services endpointmethod with a message key that was in the token stream. The method alsoinvolves obtaining, with the message key, a description of the endpointmethod's input parameters from cached data that contains informationpertaining to the Web service. The method also involves identifying theparameters within a second token stream generated from the received Webservice's message body. The method also involves causing an objectoriented response message body to be serialized with an event basedwriter into a Web services message that is a response to the receivedWeb services message.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Improvements over the Prior Art Message ProcessingRuntime Framework

FIGS. 6 and 7 show a message processing runtime framework and methodrespectively that contain improvements over the prior art runtimeframework. At a high level, three significant improvements can bereadily identified: 1) elimination of the mapping registry 214; 2)elimination of the context as a communicative intermediary between theprotocols and the runtime object 211; and, 3) re-design of the protocolsfrom being “state-full” (as in the prior art runtime framework) to being“state-less”. Each of these improvements are discussed in secession inmore detail just below.

Before discussing these improvements in more detail, however, it isimportant to recognize that aspects of the prior art runtime frameworkand/or the prior art runtime framework as whole can easily be extendedto operating environments other than a Java object-oriented environmentin which endpoint functionality is implemented as Java servlets and EJBswithin J2EE containers. To first order, other types of program code maybe used instead of Java servlets or EJBs. A servlet is essentially Javabytecode associated with a Java “page” (e.g., a Java Server Page (JSP))that enables the execution of functions from the page (such as thehandling of HTTP requests). Other types of pages and/or associated codeare possible such as CGI scripts, Active Server Pages (ASPs), ASP.NETand proprietary C/C++ plug-ins for specific Web servers (e.g., ISAPI,NSAPI) and derivatives therefrom.

Also, EJBs are recognized as being the “components” within a componentbased architecture environment that is specific to Java. Component basedsoftware environments use granules of software (referred to as“components” or “component instances”) to perform basic functions. Thefunctional granularity offered by a plurality of different componentsprovides a platform for developing a multitude of more comprehensivetasks. Some examples of component based architectures besides J2EEinclude Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), ComponentObject Model (COM), Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) and .NET.

The runtime environment can also be easily extended to environmentsother than Java (e.g., J2EE) such as .NET, LAMP, etc. Like the prior artruntime framework, the improved runtime framework is not only easilyapplied to any type of message format but is also largely independent ofwhether it is being implemented by a service provider or a serviceconsumer.

Turning then to the improvements made over the prior art runtimeframework, the elimination of the mapping registry 214 is effected byincorporating the mapping data that is specific to a particular Webservice into the Web service's own Web service data. Comparison of FIG.8 with FIG. 4 clearly demonstrates the difference. Here, message key toendpoint method mapping information 821 is observed in the improved Webservice data profile 813 of FIG. 8, but, is not observed in the priorart Web services data profile 413 of FIG. 4.

In operation, referring to FIGS. 6, 7 and 8, after the transport bindingobject 618 has identified the appropriate key value for the body of thereceived message 704, instead of invoking the use of a mapping registry305 (as in the prior art), the runtime object 211 consults 705 the Webservice data 613 with the key value. Here, in an embodiment, the mappinginformation 821 for a Web service contains a mapping between eachpossible message key (which, in turn, corresponds to each possible typeof message) that the specific Web service may be asked to respond to andinformation describing the specific endpoint method that is to beexecuted in order to respond to the message (e.g., 1) the name of themethod; 2) the order and type of the objects that the method accepts asinput parameters; 3) the type of object that the method returns; and, 4)the exceptions that the method may throw in the case of a faultcondition).

Elimination of the mapping registry 214 improves performance because,like the Web services registry 212, the mapping registry 214 wasimplemented with some form of persistence layer that induced some degreeof delay (e.g., waiting for other processes to finish their access tothe registry, propagation delay over a network where the registry isimplemented as a remote database, etc.). By incorporating the messagekey-to-endpoint method information mapping into the Web services data613, the mapping information for the Web service may be accessed morequickly by being cached along with the Web service data. From theperspective of an enterprise software developer, to say something is“cached” typically means that it is stored within a computer's “memory”(such as its system memory or a processor's local (typically on-chip)cache) rather than a slower persistence layer such as a hard disk fileor remote database.

With respect to the second improvement over the prior art runtimeframework, the elimination of the context as a communicativeintermediary between the protocols, note that FIG. 2 shows an“in-direct” method invocation 250, 251 being made upon the runtimeobject 211 by protocol 216_2 through the context 514. That is, theinvocation 250, 251 is in-direct because it is made through the context(for which the method 527 offered by the context 514 of FIG. 5 wasused). A protocol may need to invoke the runtime object 211, forinstance, to identify the location of the Web services data 413 oranother protocol.

By contrast, referring to FIG. 6, the improved runtime framework hasbeen designed to permit a protocol to invoke the runtime object directly650. Essentially, the prior art runtime framework was designed with theviewpoint that the context 514 would be the primary interface betweenthe protocols and the remainder of the runtime framework so that theprotocols and runtime framework could be re-designed as needed in futurereleases while still maintaining downward compatibility (e.g., an oldprotocol could still properly work with a new runtime object). However,because of the inefficiencies associated with in-direct communicationfrom a protocol to the runtime object, direct communication is embracedin the new design. Downward compatibility is expected to be maintainedby preserving legacy methods in the runtime object in its futurereleases.

With respect to the third improvement over the prior art runtimeframework, the re-design of the protocols from being “state-full” to“state-less”, generally, the execution of software code typicallyinvolves the assignment of specific values to certain variables.Software state information is basically viewed as any of these specificvalues as they exist at a specific moment during the software code'sexecution. State-full program code is software code that is designed tokeep its software state information. State-less program code is softwarecode that does not keep software state information (e.g., its codedmethods are “fixed” so as to be incapable of comprehending any kind of“variable” information, or, the program code is configured to store itsstate information externally from itself (e.g., from a memory regionreserved for the program code) or at least be able to have its stateinformation externally stored from itself).

In the prior art framework, because the protocols were state-full, theprotocols could not easily change their internal state from onereceived/response message pair process run to another. As such, once aprotocol instance was directed to the servicing of a particularreceived/response message pair, that protocol instance could not bereapplied to another message pair (at least until its servicing of thefirst received/response message pair was complete). Thus, if tenseparate processing runs were concurrently executed to simultaneouslyprocess ten different received/response message pairs, and, if each ofthese processing runs needed to use the “same” protocol (e.g., theWS-Security protocol), then, ten separate instances of this protocol hadto be created (e.g., ten separate instances of the WS-Security protocolwere created). Unfortunately, each instance of a protocol consumes itsown associated portion of memory. For example, in the case of Java, eachinstance of a program is given its own region of memory for instancespecific data that is used by the program's bytecode instructions. Thus,in the prior art approach, each time a new process run was started, asignificant block of memory was reserved in order to “make room” foreach of the protocol instances within the process's protocol stack. Thishampered scalability/performance of the prior art runtime frameworkbecause “too many” concurrently attempted process runs resulted in toomuch memory being consumed.

State-less protocols, by contrast, can easily change their internalstate from one process to another process. As such, a single protocolinstance can more readily handle the processing for multiple,concurrently processed message pairs. As a comparison, recall that, inthe prior art framework, ten concurrently processed received/responsemessage pairs that used the same state-full protocol required thecreation of ten separate instances of that state-full protocol. Bycontrast, in the improved framework, ten concurrently processedreceived/response message pairs that need to use the same protocol canbe serviced with only one instance of a state-less version of thatprotocol. Essentially, in order to do this, at least in a Javaenvironment, the single state-less protocol instance has data pertainingto a first particular message pair process run loaded into its reservedmemory region. The state-less protocol executes its instructions, andthen (e.g., after the execution of its instructions are finished),externally saves (as “state” information) data from its memory regioninto the first process's context. Then, the same state-less protocolinstance can have data pertaining to a second process loaded into itsmemory region and the process repeats. Conceivably, a single state-lessprotocol instance could handle a “second” received/response message pairprocess run between its inbound flow handling and its outbound flowhandling of a “first” received/response message pair process run.Because of the ease at which their internal state can be changed so asto apply to different processes, stateless protocols are also capable ofsupporting “hibernation”, which, as elaborated on in more detail below,permits the improved framework to entertain the WS-Reliable Messagingprotocol (which the prior art runtime framework did not support).

Here, recall from the discussion provided in the Background sub-sectionentitled “Web Services” that, at least in the context of SOAP messages,extensions have been built into the message format definition to accountfor certain business relationship behaviors that may desire them. Recallin particular that one such extension, referred to as the “WS-ReliableMessaging” extension has been defined that provides for proper orderingof SOAP messages at the SOAP message layer (i.e., “on top of” anyunderlying transport layer or protocol such as HTTP, TCP, etc.).

A basic upgrade to the prior art runtime framework would entail thedevelopment of another protocol that is designed to effect theWS-Reliable Messaging extension at least by keeping track of the properorder of received SOAP messages, and, properly re-arranging the order ofa group of received SOAP messages that arrived “out of order” beforethey were processed by the appropriate endpoint. FIG. 6 shows a schemefor implementing such a protocol.

FIG. 10 shows exemplary processing performed by a WS-Reliable Messagingprotocol 1001 for a Web service having three messages that arrive “outof order”. According to the example of FIG. 10, first, “message 3”arrives, then, “message 2” arrives, then, “message 1” arrives. That is,the ordering of the messages in their arrival is 3, 2, 1—and—the“proper” order should have been 1, 2, 3. According to the example ofFIG. 10, the runtime object commences processing for the first messageto arrive (message 3) at time t1.

Because the protocol stack for the Web service is responsible forexecuting the received message's header information, it is notrecognized that message 3 corresponds to an “out of order” message untilthe WS-Reliable Messaging protocol 1001 in the Web service's protocolstack executes. During the execution of the WS-Reliable Messagingprotocol 1001 for message 3, the protocol 1001 discovers that message 3is out of order, and, places the message processing run for message 3into “hibernation” 1003. A state-less protocol program code instancethat can externally store its state information is able to easilyhibernate a message processing run by externally storing its stateinformation so as to suspend its execution for the processing run. Then,sometime after the hibernation, the protocol program code instance canseamlessly continue the messaging processing run as of the moment it washibernated by reading back into itself the stored state information andrestarting execution. Importantly, the protocol program code instanceitself need not be suspended too. Once the state information for aparticular received/response message pair is saved, the instance ofprogram code can be re-applied to work on another message processingrun. Continuing with the example, sometime after time t1, the runtimeobject commences processing 1004 for the second message to arrive(message 2) at time t2.

During the processing of message 2, the WS-Reliable Messaging protocolfor the Web service discovers that message 2 is also out of order, and,also places the processing for message 2 into hibernation 1005 (byexternally saving its state information). Sometime after time t2, theruntime object commences processing 1006 for the third message to arrive(message 1) at time t3. Because message 1 is the appropriate “nextmessage to be processed”, the protocol 1001 does not recognize anyproblem and permits the message processing for message 1 to continue.The protocol 1001 also causes the hibernated processes for messages 2and 3 to be restarted such that the processing for message 2 resumes1007 (at time t4) before the processing for message 3 resumes 1008 (attime t5). Here, the restarting of the processes for each of messages 2and 3 involves the reloading of their respective state information intothe protocol 1001 (e.g., just before time t4 for message 2 and justbefore time t5 for message 3).

With these concepts in mind, FIG. 11 shows a new protocol stack inboundprocess flow 1124. According to the depiction of FIG. 11, the firstprotocol 1116_1 receives a HANDLE_REQUEST command from the runtimeobject 1111, and, commensurate with (e.g., just prior to) the firstprotocol 1116_1 providing the runtime object 1111 with a NEXT responseto confirm its successful execution, the first protocol 1116_1 storesits state information into the process run's context information 1114.This procedure continues at least for each subsequent protocol thatprecedes the WS-Reliable Messaging protocol (depicted in FIG. 11 asprotocols 1116_2 through 1116_M), and, may continue for any protocolthat follows the WS-Reliable Messaging protocol in the protocol stack'sinbound flow 1124.

FIG. 9 shows new context information 914 that supports the processingdescribed above. Note that unlike the prior art context information 514depicted in FIG. 5, the context information depicted in FIG. 9 includesprotocol state information 925. In an implementation, the protocol stateinformation can be saved in the context as serialized information (e.g.,a byte array, a string, etc.) in order to promote its ability to bepersisted (e.g., written to a deeper form of storage than cache or localmemory such as hard disk file, a database, etc.) during hibernation.

Note that even though the “WS-Reliable Messaging” title is recognized asbeing pertinent to a SOAP message format extension, is believed that theconcepts outlined above could conceivably be applied to messages thatare not regarded as SOAP messages. The term “reliable messagingprotocol” is therefore intended not to be restricted solely to protocolsthat only contemplate SOAP messages. A description of the WS-ReliableMessaging protocol is described in more detail immediately below.

It is believed that the runtime framework herein described may be usedwith subsequent revisions of the existing common WS specifications,including, but not limited to, WS-Reliable Messaging, WS-Security, andWS-Addressing.

WS Reliable Messaging Protocol

Transactions across a network (including local area networks (LANs) andthe Internet) from a source endpoint to a destination endpoint may bedisrupted including messages being lost, corrupted, duplicated, and/orreceived out-of-order. While the factors causing these disruptions arebeyond the scope of this document these disruptions still need to behandled effectively and efficiently in Web services systems. A standardWeb Services Reliable Message Protocol specification(WS-ReliableMessaging) has been authored to fulfill these needs andserves as a building block for varying Web services implementations. Inaddition to providing for reliable message transactions, the WS-ReliableMessaging specification allows for different Web servicesimplementations to interact with each other (for example, this allowsfor communication between J2EE implementations and .NETimplementations). As of the time of this writing, the complete commonWS-ReliableMessaging specification can be found athttp://specs.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/02/rm/.

During execution of any WS-ReliableMessaging protocol an identifier forthe group of messages to be transmitted between the source anddestination is applied to each message. This identifier is referred toas the sequence identifier (sequence ID). The sequence ID uniquelyidentifies the group of messages transactions. The sequence ID is usedbecause at any given point in time an endpoint may have more than onegroup of messages being received or sent. Almost all of the messagestransmitted using WS-ReliableMessaging use a sequence identifier (theexception being the first message sent from the source which requests asequence ID from the destination). Each reliable message sent from thesource also includes a message (or sequence) number. This number is usedto determine what order of the messages received should be in and/or todetermine if all of the messages have been received. Messages are sentone at a time from the source to the destination endpoint.

A few conditions are to be adhered to according to the current commonspecification. These conditions include: 1) the source must have anendpoint reference that uniquely identifies the destination endpoint; 2)the source must have knowledge of the destination's policies and becapable of adhering to these policies; 3) if secure exchange isrequired, both the source and destination must have the appropriatesecurity capabilities; 4) the source must assign each reliable message asequence number; and 5) every acknowledgement issued by the destinationmust include a sequence number range of every message successfullyreceived and exclude sequence numbers not yet received.

As described above, the state-less reliable messaging protocol has astandard interface that essentially “hides” from other applications thechanges to the content of the WS-ReliableMessaging specificationinformation that may evolve over time. That is, the state-less reliablemessaging protocol may be re-designed if necessary to adapt to changesmade to the applicable specifications that define the content of theWS-ReliableMessaging common specification, while, maintaining at theinterface methods that may be invoked by legacy software applications.

FIG. 12 depicts an exemplary execution reliable message exchange betweenendpoints using a state-less WS-ReliableMessaging protocol (SL WS-RM).Each of the endpoints (source/consumer 1201 and destination/provider1203) has invoked its version of the SL WS-RM. At 1205, the sourceendpoint 1201 makes a sequence request. A sequence request involvesasking for a sequence ID from the destination endpoint 1203. Thedestination endpoint 1203 creates a sequence response, including thesequence ID, and transmits this response to the source 1201 at 1207. Forexample, the sequence ID “http://www.sap.com/webserviceapp1” may becreated by the destination 1203 and transmitted to the source 1201 andwill be used by all of the messages transmitted from either endpointrelating to a common group of messages.

In one embodiment, the destination 1203 includes a timer 1227 to monitorthe duration between messages received. If the duration is too long, theduration will terminate the messaging sequence (for example, if thetimer 1227 expires the messaging sequence will end and the source 1201will have to request another sequence ID). At 1209, this timer 1227 isinvoked and begins monitoring the duration between messages from thesource 1201 to the destination 1203.

With a proper sequence ID the source 1201 may transmit messages to thedestination 1203. As required by the common specification, the firstmessage from the source 1201 is labeled as “message number 1” with eachsubsequent message increasing by one in value (for example, the nextmessage will be “message number 2”, etc.). At 1211, the source transmitsits first message to the destination. In this illustration the source1201 has also requested an acknowledgement from the destination 1203that it received “message number 1.” At 1213, the destination 1203transmits an acknowledgement to the source 1201. In one embodiment, thesource 1201 waits until an acknowledgement is received beforetransmitting the next message.

At 1215, the source 1201 transmits “message number 2.” However, in thisexample “message number 2” does not reach the destination 1203. As thesource 1201 did not request an acknowledgement be sent by thedestination 1203, the source 1201 does not know that the message did notreach its intended target. The third and final message is sent from thesource 1201 at 1217. The destination returns an acknowledgement at 1219to the source 1201. This acknowledgement includes the message numbers ofthose messages received. In this scenario it does not include “messagenumber 2.” The source 1201 knows that “message number 2” did not reachthe destination 1203 and retransmits “message number 2” at 1221. Thedestination returns an acknowledgement at 1223 to the source 1201 thatall of the messages (“message number 1”, “message number 2”, and“message number 3”) have been received. With all of the messagesreceived by the destination 1203, a terminate sequence command istransmitted at 1225 by the source 1201.

Because of the state-less nature of the protocols, each message that ismanaged by SL WS-RM in an out-of-order fashion is hibernated asnecessary. FIG. 15 depicts an exemplary flow of the use of state-less WSRM during runtime execution. The state-less runtime execution invokes amessaging system 1519 that includes a processing array 1521 (which canbe viewed as a kind of queue or table). In one embodiment, the messagingsystem 1519 is a J2EE engine service, which implements abstract messageprocessing and includes features needed for the SL WS-RM such aspersistence, quality of service processing, event handling, message lifecycle management, web UI monitoring and etc.

As requests are made (messages are either being received or sent), theprocessing array 1521 is used to properly order the execution of theserequests and/or record which requests have been already handled. Byrecording which requests have been handled, the messaging system 1519knows what messages have been sent (or received) and therefore is ableto generate the proper acknowledgements required by the commonspecification for ReliableMessaging. In one embodiment, each request isplaced in the array 1521, the request hibernated, and no furtherprocessing is done until all of the requests of a group of requests havebeen made.

For example, if the request is for processing outbound messages it maybe beneficial to wait until all of the requests are in the array 1521.If a problem occurs which causes the group to not be prepared correctlyit would be a waste of resources (processing time, network bandwidth,etc.) to send out messages when the group would not be complete. Inanother embodiment, requests that are in the proper order are processedimmediately and the array is updated to show that the status of therequest is that it has been fully processed. Those that are out-of-orderare hibernated (again still noting in the array the status of therequest) until it is proper to fully process them.

According to the example of FIG. 13 only those messages that areout-of-order are hibernated. At Time_0 1301 Request_3 is managed by SLWS-RM_1, the first protocol context instance of the SL WS-RM protocol.Request_3 is the third request from the group of requests. SinceRequest_1 and Request_2 have not been processed, Request_3 is hibernatedand the array 1321 is updated to reflect this. Accordingly, its “state”is now saved in the context to be processed later. At Time_1 1303 (apoint later in time), Request_1 is managed by SL WS-RM_2. Request_1 isprocessed immediately and the array 1321 updated to reflect that status.At Time_2 1305, Request_2 is managed and should be processed likeRequest_1 was processed at Time_1 1303. At Time_3 1307, Request_4 ismanaged by SL WS-RM_3. However, Request_4 should not be immediatelyprocessed unless Request_3 has been awakened from hibernation and fullyprocessed. Therefore, if Request_3 has not been fully processed atTime_3 1307 Request_4 is hibernated and the array 1321 is updated toreflect this status. At Time_4 1309, Request_3 is awakened and fullyprocessed. After Request_3 has been fully processed Request_4 isawakened to complete its processing. It should be understood that onerequest may be hibernated while another is being processed.

Hibernation

In this section the hibernation of the runtime will be discussed. Thisis a procedure that state-less WS-RM may call to place a protocoloperation into a suspended state. During hibernation, the current stateof a Web services (inbound or outbound side) is persisted and at a laterpoint of time the processing can be resumed from the previously savedstate.

FIG. 14 depicts an exemplary hibernation flow (including putting themessage to “sleep” and “waking up” the message to resume processing) onthe outbound side for a Web service employing state-less protocols. TheSL WS-RM is called by the runtime at 1401 (if it has not already beeninvoked), which creates a “protocol context instance” of the SL WS-RMprotocol. At 1403, the SL WS-RM protocol context instance and messagedata (payload) are serialized. The protocol context instance includesthe state information of the protocol (and any other protocols) neededto resume processing of the particular message at a later point in time.In an embodiment, other protocol context instances may be hibernatedwith or without SL WS-RM information. The message data may include thebody of a message (for example, a SOAP message body), headerinformation, and/or attachments to the message (for example, a DIMEattachment). In this case “serialization” is the well-known process ofsaving an object to a sequence of bytes referred to as a “byte array”.

A complete Messaging System (MS) message that contains the serializedprotocol instance context, serialized message data, and information usedby the MS is created at 1405. For example, in one embodiment, a SL WS-RMMS message contains the following WS-RM specific data found in the SOAPheaders: the sequence ID, message number, and last message flag. Someadditional information may be applied to the MS message regarding WS-RMconfiguration (WS-RM policy) such as: expiration timeout,retransmission/retry interval (relevant for the consumer side),acknowledgement interval (relevant for the provider side), deliveryassurance mode, and exponential backoff algorithm flag (for theretransmission in the consumer side). This MS message is persisted at1407 and the message is considered hibernated. In a furtherimplementation, a portion of the context 914 is utilized for storingserialized MS messages. In one embodiment, the MS message does notinclude serialized message data. The message data is instead left in itsXML form. This message data is either ignored or saved in anothermanner. Persisting messages on the outbound side allows for quickregeneration of messages that may have already been sent but need to beretrieved again. For example, if a message does not reach its intendedtarget it is much quicker to regenerate the message from its hibernatedstate than to recreate a completely new message with the sameinformation. In some cases it may be impossible to even recreate amessage at all unless it has been hibernated first. The MS recordshibernations. For example, the MS records that a message has beenpersisted. This recordation may include placing a record of thishibernation in the array 1521. Recordation serves at least twopurposes: 1) allowing for proper acknowledgements to be generated, and2) providing a reference to the storage location of the persistedmessage. For example, the record may contain information including theidentification of the object context being operated on.

Messages that are hibernated at some point later in time may be awakenedto continue processing and be sent to an endpoint. The MS sends an eventto the SL WS-RM layer to begin this wake up process. The persisted MSmessage is retrieved and the persisted data and context is deserializedat 1409. The context allows the protocol context instance of SL WS-RM toresume where the processing was left off before hibernation. The data ofthe message is serialized at 1411. At 1413 it is determined if otherprotocols should be run on the message (for example, a Headers protocolto insert message header information, a WS-Security protocol to addmessage security, etc.). These protocols are run at 1415 prior to themessage being sent out. If no protocols need to be run or after theprotocols have been run at 1415 the message is transmitted to theendpoint at 1417.

Hibernation may also be used on the inbound side in a state-lessimplementation. FIG. 15 depicts an exemplary flow of going intohibernation on the inbound side of a received message. An inboundmessage is received at 1501 by the WS runtime and some preliminaryprocessing is done (for example, calling the Headers protocol to readthe message's headers). A protocol context instance of SL WS-RM callsthe SL WS-RM hibernation routine at 1503. All other protocol instancesare put to sleep at 1505 by the WS runtime. Their configuration contextsare persisted including anything that may be necessary to help wake themup at a later time. In one embodiment, these configuration contexts areserialized prior to the protocols being put to sleep. The message thatwas received by the WS runtime is serialized at 1507. This serializationincludes converting into a sequence of bytes both the context of theprotocol and data (payload) of the message. In one embodiment, the MSmessage does not include serialized message data. The message data isinstead left in its XML form. This message data is either ignored orsaved in another manner. At 1509 it is determined if any other protocolsshould be run (for example, a WS-Security protocol). These protocols arerun at 1511. The serialized data and context are persisted (a MSmessage) at 1513 by the MS and the MS records that the message has beenpersisted (for example in the array 1521). In a further implementation,a portion of the context 914 is utilized for storing serialized MSmessages and the configuration contexts of the other protocols put tosleep at 1505. With the MS message persisted the WS runtime no longerprocesses the message.

At some point later in time the message will be restored fromhibernation. FIG. 16 depicts an exemplary flow of restoring fromhibernation on the inbound side. The MS calls SL WS-RM at 1601 and aprotocol context instance of SL WS-RM is created and begins therestoration of a message that has been hibernated. The MS sends an eventto the WS RM layer to begin this wake up process. The persisted MSmessage is retrieved by the WS runtime and the persisted data andcontext are deserialized at 1603. The configuration context and otherpersisted data are rebuilt at 1605. A new thread is created for thisconfiguration context to be processed at 1607. In this thread otherprotocols may be invoked at 1611 for further processing of this messageif deemed necessary at 1609. For example, the Headers protocol may beinvoked so that header information from the message can be provided tothe message's endpoint. The complete message (all protocols have beeninvoked that needed to be) is then processed by the message's endpointand a response message is transmitted 1613 to an endpoint.

Headers Protocol

As discussed in the background, the Headers protocol is designed topermit an endpoint and/or another protocol on the consumer side to: a)comprehend at least a portion of a received message's headerinformation; and/or, b) write at least a portion of a response message'sheader information. FIGS. 17 and 18 describe in detail the operation ofthe Headers protocol as adapted to work within the architecture of theimproved runtime framework. It is pertinent to point out that althoughin an actual implementation the Headers protocol is only instantiated onthe consumer side, there is nothing (architecturally speaking) thatprevents its instantiation on the provider side. In an implementation,on the service provider side, the interfacing between a receivedmessage's header information and an endpoint and/or other protocol isperformed by an API to the context (i.e., the endpoint and/or otherprotocol read/write header information from the context through an APIrather than the Headers Protocol). Conceivably, such an API could beinstantiated on the consumer side too.

A pertinent difference between the Headers protocol as implemented inthe prior art runtime framework and the Headers protocol as implementedin the newer improved runtime framework is that the newer Headersprotocol is stateless so to be compatible with the hibernation process.FIG. 17 depicts an exemplary inbound flow for a received message. FIG.18 depicts an exemplary outbound flow.

According to the exemplary inbound flow of FIG. 17, a protocol stackthat includes four protocols 1716_1 through 1716_4 execute in sequencein order to process a received message. The four protocols include inorder: 1) a WS Security protocol 1716_1 that executesencryption/decryption and/or signature checking tasks; 2) the Headersprotocol 1716_2; 3) a third protocol 1716_3 that is designed to useinformation found in the header of the received message; and, 4) afourth protocol that is also designed to use information found in theheader of the received message.

In practice, if proper processing requires use of the WS Securityprotocol, the WS Security protocol 1716_1 precedes the Headers protocol1716_2 in the protocol stack because no further processing should beperformed if the received message does not pass its “securityclearance”. The third and fourth protocols 1716_3, 1216_4 canessentially be any other protocol. For further demonstrative value, inorder to demonstrate the stateless nature of the Headers protocol, oneof protocols 1716_3 and 1716_4 is assumed to be the Reliable Messagingprotocol.

According to the execution of the protocol stack in the inbounddirection, first, the WS Security protocol 1716_1 will perform whateverdecryption and signature checking is warranted. The Headers protocol1716_2 then executes. The Headers protocol is essentially used as amechanism to abstract the specific structure/formatting of the headerinformation 1723 within the message object 1720 to other protocolsand/or endpoints that are written to comprehend message headerinformation.

Essentially, over the years with repeated releases of “next generation”software, the structure/formatting of the header information 1723 maychange. For example, the order and/or content of the DOM Elements withinthe header information 1723 may change because of a SOAP message headerspecification change. In light of such changes, any protocols orendpoints that are designed to comprehend and/or use message headerinformation would have to be changed too if they were designed to accessthe message object's header information 1723 directly.

By instead designing these various protocols and endpoints to access a“standard interface” 1745 offered by the Headers protocol 1716_2, theycan be made immune to any changes that are made to the structuring ofthe header information within the message object That is, they do nothave to be re-designed in light of a message object header information1723 change if they are designed to invoke methods offered by theHeader's protocol interface 1745, and, the Header's protocol interface1745 maintains support for these method invocations despite the change.Essentially, the Header's protocol 1716_2 is re-designed to deal withthe change but nevertheless maintains “downward compatibility” ofinterface 1745.

In an implementation, the execution of the Headers protocol 1716_2entails its reading 1741 of header elements (e.g., which are implementedas DOM Elements) from the header portion of the received message object12 and storing the read header elements in itself 1716_2. In a furtherimplementation, the Headers protocol 1716_2 is configured to only storewithin itself 1716_2 those header elements that have a setting of“must_understand=true”.

Protocols written to access interface 1745 access the header informationthey need through the Header's protocol standard interface 1745.Essentially, the Headers protocol 1716_2 gives header information to asubsequent protocol that asks for the information, where, both therequest for the information and the information itself is passed throughinterface 1745.

In an implementation, a protocol can ask for only a specific item ofheader information (e.g., information from a specific header element orset of header elements), and, the Headers protocol only returns theinformation that was specifically asked for. For instance, if protocol1716_3 is a WS Reliable Messaging protocol as described above, theinformation asked for and delivered 1742 to protocol 1716_3 would belargely limited only to the header information that was indicative of“which” message the received message corresponds to amongst the correctserial ordering of a plurality of incoming messages and “which” group ofmessages the received message belongs to.

Continuing with an example where protocol 1716_3 is a WS ReliableMessaging protocol, a pertinent distinction between the Headers protocolimplementation in the prior art runtime framework as compared to theimplementation in the improved runtime framework is that the Header'sprotocol in the improved runtime framework is capable of supporting thehibernation process. If the Header's protocol is designed to keep stateinformation, then, this information is externally saved prior tohibernation.

That is, the Headers protocol 1716_2 is capable of supporting thehibernation of the runtime process being executed in response to the WSReliable Messaging protocol determining that such hibernation iswarranted. The specific protocol context instance of the Headersprotocol that instance 1716_2 corresponds to may have its state saved1746 into the context 1714 and hibernated. While this particularprotocol context instance 1716_2 of the Headers protocol will not beavailable until it is awakened from hibernation, the Headers protocolinstance registered with the framework may be “re-used” to supportanother runtime process (another protocol context instance is invoked)for another received message. Likewise, as part of the hibernationprocess, the WS Security protocol context instance would have its stateinformation saved into context 1714 as well.

As part of the sequence of re-starting the runtime process from itshibernated state in response to a determination being made that it ispresently appropriate to process the received message that messageobject 1720 corresponds to, the WS Security protocol and 1716_1 andHeaders protocol 1716_2 (and WS Reliable Messaging protocol 1716_3) willhave their state information read back from context 1214. Then, protocol1716_4 will execute. Note that, according to the diagram of FIG. 17,protocol 1716_4 also asks for and receives message header information1743 from the Headers protocol 1716_2.

FIG. 17 also illustrates that the appropriate endpoint 1730 for thereceived message that the message object 1720 corresponds to can usemessage header information as well by being designed to access 1744 thestandard interface 1745 of the Headers protocol 1716_2.

Before continuing on to FIG. 18, it is pertinent to note that, ratherthan reading 1741 and storing into itself the message header information1723, the Headers protocol 1716_2 could be designed to read headerinformation 1723 only in response to a request from another protocol orendpoint. That is, for example, rather than read the entirety of theheader information 1723 immediately after execution of protocol 1716_1,the Headers protocol 1716_2 could be designed to access the messageheader information 1723 for each request by a later executed protocol orendpoint. In a further extension of such an implementation, the headerelements may be kept in the message object 12 (i.e., the Headersprotocol does not store inside itself the header information). A Headersprotocol designed according to these principles may be regarded aspurely stateless in this sense that it does not have any information tostore externally and therefore inherently supports hibernation bydesign. An instance of such a Headers protocol can be easily re-appliedto other messages during the hibernation of a message it was directed toaccess the header information of.

FIG. 18 shows the outbound processing flow for the protocol stackdiscussed above with respect to the inbound processing flow of FIG. 17.Whereas in the inbound direction protocols and endpoints may desire toknow certain content within the received message's header, by contrast,in the outbound direction, protocols and endpoints may be desire toestablish certain content within the response message's header. As such,the direction of the header information flows of FIG. 18 are in theopposite direction (into the Headers protocol interface 1845) than theheader information flows of FIG. 17 (out of the Headers protocolinterface 1745). According to an implementation, when the Headersprotocol 1816_2 executes in the outbound direction, it writes 1841 thecombined header information 1844, 1843, 1842 (respectively, from theendpoint 1830 and the protocols 1816_3, 1816_4 that have alreadyexecuted in the outbound direction) into the header information portion1823 of the response message object 1824. Alternatively, the Headersprotocol 1816_2 could write header information each time a protocol orendpoint access interface 1845 (i.e., the Headers protocol writes to theoutbound message object on an “as-needed” basis by another protocoland/or endpoint).

The Headers protocol 1816_2 may also be capable of saving its stateinformation 1825 externally into the context 1814 for the message groupin case hibernation is appropriate (and if the Headers protocol is notpurely stateless as discussed briefly above) when a response message isbeing generated. Note that, because the overall runtime process beingdescribed supports service consumer-side processes as well, the Headersprotocol can also be used to write message header information for aninitial “request” message to be sent to a service provider that is notproperly deemed as any kind of “response” message.

WS Addressing Protocol

As mentioned in the Web-Services subsection of the background of thepresent application, a “WS-Addressing” extension has been defined forthe Web services effort that specifies information to be containedwithin a SOAP header 106 that describes the destination of the SOAPmessage in a transport independent fashion. Prior to the introduction ofthe WS-Addressing specification, the transportation of a Web servicesmessage through a network was largely viewed as the responsibility oflower level transportation technologies (e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, etc.)that treated the Web services message purely as payload information.

The WS-Addressing specification essentially permits certaintransportation related specifics about the message to be abstractedabove any specific transportation technology so that the message'stransportation details are essentially defined in a format that isindependent of a specific transportation technology.

The most notable technology independent transportation information thatthe WS Addressing defines is the message's destination endpoint andsender endpoint (referred to generically as “EndPoint References” orEPRs). For instance, in the case of a message being sent from a Webservice consumer to a Web service provider, the sender endpointreference identifies the Web service consumer and the destinationendpoint reference identifies the Web services provider. In the case ofa SOAP message, the endpoint references may be written in XML in theheader of the SOAP message.

Some important capabilities may be realized by abstractly defining thesource and destination of a message in this fashion. As one example, theunderlying transportation technology for a message can be changed as ittraverses the network from the sender endpoint to the destinationendpoint. Consider a situation where a first leg of a message's journeythrough the network is to be transported by HTTP and a second leg of themessage's journey is to be transported by SMTP.

At the node in the message's path through the network where theswitchover from HTTP to SMTP is to take place (e.g., an “intermediate”node), the destination endpoint reference found in the message's header(which from the perspective of the HTTP packet is located within theHTTP packet's own payload information) could be used as a basis forbuilding SMTP header information that specifies the destination endpointin an SMTP compatible fashion (e.g., by performing a look up in a tablethat correlates destination endpoint references to SMTP destination IDvalues).

The WS Addressing specification also permits additional technologyindependent definition of information, often referred to as MessageIndicators (MIs), that help define properties about the message. Some ofthese include: 1) a “Reply” indicator that indicates to the destinationendpoint where the response message is to be sent (e.g., if differentthan the sender endpoint); 2) a “Fault” indicator that indicates to thedestination endpoint where a response message is to be sent if there isa “fault” detected (i.e., some error in execution); 3) a “Message ID”indicator that tags an identification to the message for purpose ofuniquely identifying the message; 4) an “Action” indicator thatidentifies the semantics implied by the message; and, 5) a“Relationship” indicator that indicates how the message relates toanother message.

FIG. 19 shows another inbound protocol stack flow that includes a WSAddressing protocol 1916_2 written for the improved runtime framework.According to one embodiment of the inbound protocol stack flow of FIG.19, as described in detail above, the Headers protocol 1916_1 reads 1941and stores inside itself 1916_1 the header information 1923 from thereceived message object 1924 found within context 1914. The WSAddressing protocol 1916_2 then executes.

According to an implementation, consistent with the discussion providedabove for the Headers protocol, the WS Addressing protocol 1916_2invokes the Headers protocol 1916_1 in order to receive 1942 headerinformation from the received message that pertains to the WS Addressingspecification (e.g., the sender and destination EPRs along with Reply,Fault, MessageID, Action and Relationship MIs). In an alternativeimplementation, rather than fetch “all” WS Addressing information fromthe Headers protocol 1916_1 as a single process, the WS Addressingprotocol 1916_2 could be designed to ask for specific EPRs and/or MIs onan as needed basis.

The WS Addressing protocol 1916_2 is able to store 1943 its stateinformation 1925 into the context 1914 as its protocol context instanceinformation (which, in an implementation, includes the WS AddressingEPRs and MIs received from the Headers protocol). By being designed tostore state information before hibernation sufficient to correctlycomplete its operations at a later time, the WS Addressing protocol1916_2 is capable of being in a protocol stack that includes the WSReliable Messaging protocol (which, for instance, may be protocol1916_3).

In an embodiment, the WS Addressing protocol 1916_2 is able to: 1)provide 1944 EPRs and/or MIs to external software applications 1920(e.g., other protocols, endpoints and/or background processes designedto support a Web services infrastructure); and, 2) perform basic rolesand behaviors that are called out by the applicable WS Addressingspecification(s). In the case of the former, the WS Addressing protocol1916_2, like the Headers protocol 1916_1, maintains a “standardinterface” 1945 that is used to pass EPRs and/or MIs to any externalsoftware applications 1920 that may desire them.

For instance, in a case where the underlying transportation technologyis being changed (e.g., from HTTP to SMTP as discussed above), softwareapplication 1920 may be a background process that determines the proper(e.g., SMTP) address for the destination endpoint based on thedestination EPR. In this situation, during the inbound execution of theprotocol stack, the destination endpoint EPR is passed to the backgroundprocess through interface 1945. The background process is thenresponsible for forwarding the correct destination address to thetransport binding of the new underlying transportation technology.MessageID, Action and Relationship MIs may also be passed to otherprotocols, endpoint and/or background processes to support whateverfunctions they perform.

Like the standard interface 1745, 1845 of the Headers protocol, thestandard interface 1945 of the WS Addressing protocol 1916_2 essentially“hides” from other applications 1920 changes to the message objectheader information 1923 and/or content of the WS Addressing headerinformation that may evolve over time. That is, the WS Addressingprotocol 1916_2 can be re-designed if necessary to adapt to changes madeto the or applicable specifications that define the content of the WSAddressing header information and/or message object 19, while,maintaining at interface 1945 methods that may be invoked by legacysoftware applications 1920.

In an implementation, the WS Addressing protocol 1916_2 also performsspecific behaviors called out by an WS Addressing specification. Some ofthese may include: 1) during the outbound protocol stack flow when nofault has been detected, providing the Headers protocol 1916_1 withdestination EPR information to be written into the response messageobject header information, where, the destination EPR corresponds to theaddress of the endpoint identified in the Reply MI of the receivedmessage header information; and, 2) during the outbound protocol stackflow when a fault has been detected, providing the Headers protocol1916_1 with destination EPR information to be written into the responsemessage object header information, where, the destination EPRcorresponds to the address of the endpoint identified in the Fault MI ofthe received message header information.

Improved Implementation Container

Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, the runtime object 611 retrieves an instanceof the implementation container 706 and then fetches the endpoint'sclassloader 307. Referring to FIG. 8, in an implementation, the identityof the Web service's implementation container is listed 822 in the Webservice data 813. The runtime object 611 refers to this listing 822 andprovides an implementation container manager 617 with the identity 822of the implementation container.

The implementation container manager 617 is essentially a registry, and,in response to its reception of the implementation container's identity,provides the runtime object 611 with a pointer or other reference to aninterface to the implementation container 619. With the interface, theruntime object 611 can, in a sense, be deemed to posses an instance ofthe implementation container 619 itself.

An interface is essentially an object oriented structure for invokingmethods. A basic use of a container's interface involves: 1) identifyinga specific component within the container (e.g., a specific EJB orservlet); 2) identifying the specific method to be performed by thatcomponent; and, 3) supplying the input argument(s) for the method in itsproper format (e.g., the specific input parameters needed by the methodlisted in the specific order that the method requires).

With respect to the runtime framework, not only may multiple containersexist, but also, “different” containers may exist (e.g., an EJBcontainer, a Web Interface container, etc.). Furthermore, “different”containers may have “different” interfaces in terms of the manner andformat in which the three parameters listed above (componentidentification, method identification and input argument) are provided.

In the prior art runtime framework, the implementation container manager217 merely provided the runtime object 211 with an instance of theimplementation container's interface (as defined by that container).Thus, in a system with endpoints located across different types ofcontainers, the runtime object was expected to comprehend each of thedifferent types of container interfaces. A scalability issue arises withthis design, however, because the introduction of any “new” type ofcontainer and its correspondingly “new” interfaces requires an upgradeof the functionality of the runtime object 211 to comprehend thespecific requirements of the new interface.

As such, the improved runtime framework has introduced a more scalableapproach in which the interface provided by the implementation containermanager 617 does not merely provide the runtime object with an instanceof the container interface as defined by the container, but rather,provides a modified version of the container interface. This modifiedversion of the container interface has the same “back-end” as thecontainer's defined interface (in terms of its ability to construct thecorrect method invocation arguments for the container), but, has acommon “front-end” (in terms of the methods that the runtime object 611calls).

In this case, the common front-end permits the runtime object 611 toonly comprehend a single type of format for method invocation at acontainer, and, the modified container interface is responsible forconverting the structure of the method invocation provided by theruntime object into the specific format required by the container at theinterface's back-end. FIG. 20 shows the scheme in more detail.

According to the depiction provided in FIG. 20, multiple containers2019_1 through 2019_Z are observed. Each of containers 2019_1 through2019_Z contain endpoints that could be called upon by runtime object2011. The respective interface used by the runtime object 611 for eachone of these containers 2019_1 through 2019_Z is depicted as interfaces2001_1 through 2001_Z. In an implementation, the respective front-ends2002_1 through 2002_Z of these interfaces are the same; which, in turn,corresponds to the runtime object 2011 invoking the endpoint methods inan identical format irrespective of which of the Z implementationcontainers is being implicated. By contrast, the back-ends 2003_1through 2003_Z of these interfaces 2009_1 through 2009_Z may be alldifferent in order to accommodate any method invocation format that isspecific to their particular container.

Thus, according to this approach, introduction of a new type ofcontainer with a corresponding new type of interface definition does notrequire an upgrade of the runtime object 2011, but merely, developmentof an interface that convert a method invocation formatted according tothe standardized front-end into a method invocation that is formattedaccording to the needs of the interface defined by the new container. Inan implementation, the standard front-end 2002 supports two methods: 1)get_classloader (in which the input argument supplied by the runtimeobject 2011 is the identity of the endpoint); and, 2) invoke_method (inwhich the input argument supplied by the runtime object 2011 includesthe identity of the endpoint, the endpoint method being invoked andinput parameters required by the endpoint method; notably, as discussedat length above, the input parameters need not be organized in theformat required by the implementation container's defined interface).

Streaming

The discussions above concerning the Headers and WS Addressing protocolspertained to the ability of one or more protocols to gain access tomessage header information. FIG. 21 demonstrates that the content ofmessage body information 2122 (as opposed to message header information2110) may also fall under the responsibilities of a protocol as well.For instance, recall the WS-Security mentioned in the background that isresponsible for encryption/decryption functions. In a prior artimplementation, a WS Security protocol 2116_1 performs decryption on areceived message 2122 in the inbound direction, and, encryption on aresponse message in the outbound direction. In the case of encryption(outbound direction), the outbound message body is “scrambled” by theWS-Security protocol 2116_1; and, in the case of decryption (inbounddirection), the contents of the received message body 2122 are“unscrambled” by the WS-Security protocol 2116_1. In both cases(encryption and decryption) the protocol 2116_1 is responsible foroverseeing functions that involve the content of the body portion of amessage.

According to the prior art approach, in the inbound direction, a DOMparser was used to construct a DOM tree representation of the encryptedmessage body, and then, the WS Security protocol performed decryption onthe DOM tree representation to produce a second DOM tree thatrepresented the decrypted message body. In the outbound direction, a DOMtree writer was used to produce a DOM tree representation of a nonencrypted message body, and then, the WS Security protocol performedencryption on the DOM tree representation to produce a second DOM treethat represented an encrypted message body. Because of the heavy use ofDOM trees and the tendency of DOM trees to be memory inefficient(particularly for a large amount of information such as a message body)the prior art approach needed to be improved from a memory consumptionperspective. The following describes alternative approaches that shouldbe more memory efficient than the processes described just above.

In the inbound direction, according to one improved implementation, inorder to comprehend details within the message body 2122 of the receivedmessage 2122, the WS Security protocol 2216_1 is provided message bodyinformation 2222 from a token streaming (“event based”) de-serializationprocess depicted schematically in FIG. 22. That is, a default tokenreader 2201 provides an object oriented stream of tokens 2202 (eachtoken being implemented as a separate object), where, each tokenappearing in the stream 2202 corresponds to some specific item foundwithin the received message body 2222. Here, it is pertinent torecognize that an XML SOAP message body 2222 can be viewed as beingorganized into one or more “elements”, where, each element can have oneor more associated “attribute” items and/or contain one or more“character data” items. An element can also contain one or more“children” elements.

FIG. 23 demonstrates an example. FIG. 23 shows a portion 2300 of an XMLdocument having an address parent element 2301 containing address name2302, address city 2303 and address postal code 2304 children elements.Note that the address element 2301 includes a “targetAddress=‘BG’”attribute item; the name element 2302 includes an “SAP Labs, Bulgaria”attribute item; the city element 2303 includes a “Sofia” attribute item;and, the postal code element 2304 includes a “12-A35” character dataitem. Referring to FIGS. 22 and 23, in processing the portion of the XMLdocument 2300, the default token reader 2201 scans the XML content 2200and provides an output “token” each time it recognizes the start of anelement, the end of an element, an attribute item or a character dataitem.

The default token reader 2201 will therefore provide, in order, thetoken stream 2310 depicted in FIG. 23 which includes: 1) an addresselement start token 2311; 2) an attribute=“_targetAddress=‘BG’_” token2312; 2) an address name element start token 2313; 3) an attribute=“SAPLabs, Bulgaria” token 2314; 4) an address name element end token 2315;5) an address city element start token (not shown); 6) anattribute=“Sofia” token (not shown); 7) an address city element endtoken (not shown); 8) an address postal code element start token (notshown); 9) a character data=“12-A35” token (not shown); 10) an addresspostal code element end token (not shown); and, 11) an address elementend token (not shown). In an implementation there exist two differentdefault token readers for two different types of XML formatting: 1)BinaryXML; and, 2) XML 1.0.

The default token reader 2201 is followed by one or more “wrapper” tokenreaders 2203, 2205 such that a “serial processing chain” is formed.Here, each wrapper token reader 2203, 2205 in the serial chain isconfigured to consolidate multiple input tokens and convert them into asingle “higher level” output token. As a consequence, the serial chainof wrapper token readers 2203, 2205 essentially converts the highlygranularized stream of tokens 2202 provided by the default token reader2201 into a higher level token abstraction so that the protocol 2216_1can ultimately receive one or more message body elements as a singleinstance of information (e.g., as a single object that represents one ormore elements within the message body).

FIG. 24 shows an example in which the first wrapper token reader_1 2203in the serial chain is designed to convert: 1) the address name elementstart, end and attribute tokens 2413, 2414, 2415 from the default tokenreader's output stream 2202 into a single token 2430; 2) the addresscity element start, end and attribute tokens 2416, 2417, 2418 into asingle token 2431; and, 3) the address postal code element start, endand character data tokens 2419, 2420, 2421 into a single token 2432.FIG. 24 also shows the effect if the second wrapper token reader_2 2205consolidates the tokens 2430 thru 2432 from wrapper object 2203 and theaddress start 2411, attribute 2412 and end 2422 tokens into a singletoken 2440 that contains all of the address information. By passing thistoken 2440 to the protocol 2216_1 (e.g., through the context 2214), theprotocol 2216_1 can be designed to reference only the single, addresselement within the message body (rather than comprehending itsconstituent parts as separate elements). Referring back to FIG. 22, inan implementation, a protocol (such as WS-Security protocol 2216)invokes the wrapper chain through the received message object 2220 inthe context 2214; which, in turn, invokes the use of the token readerchain. That is, the protocol calls to the received message object 2220to load itself with the message body information. In response, themessage object 2220 invokes the token reader chain. The token readerchain then provides encrypted content from the received message bodyinto the message object 2220. In a further implementation, the messagebody content as written in the message object 2220 is formatted as abyte array or string and therefore is placed into a serialized portionof the context 914.

A reverse serialization process may also occur in the outbound direction(e.g., for encryption). That is, a higher level wrapper token writer“expands” multiple output tokens from a single input token. Eachexpansion through a chain of wrapper token writers therefore increasesthe granularity at which the message body information was describeduntil a default token writer is reached that transforms a highlygranularized stream in object oriented form into a sequence of XMLelement start items, element end items, attribute items and characterdata items.

FIGS. 25 a and 25 b show another improved approach that is more“dynamic” than the approach described just above in the sense thatwrapper token readers are called out on an “as-needed” basis. FIG. 25 arelates to a de-serializing process and FIG. 25 b relates to aserializing process. Specifically, for de-serialization, a dispatchingtoken reader (2530 in FIG. 25 a) maintains a registry for each type oftoken that can be abstracted to a higher level by a wrapper tokenreader. The registry essentially maintains a correlation between: 1) aparticular token that can be abstracted to a higher level token by awrapper token reader; and, 2) the identity of the specific wrapper tokenreader that consolidates the particular token. For serialization, adispatching token writer (2550 in FIG. 25 b) maintains a registry foreach type of token that can be expanded to a lower level by a wrappertoken writer. This registry essentially maintains a correlationbetween: 1) a particular token that can be expanded to a lower levelcollection of tokens by a wrapper token writer; and, 2) the identity ofthe specific wrapper token writer that expands the particular token.

With respect to de-serialization, referring to FIG. 25 a, a protocol(such as a WS Security protocol 2516_1) calls to the message object 2520to retrieve whatever information is needed from the message body 2522.In response, the message object 1120 calls 1 to the dispatching tokenreader 2530. According to an implementation, information is returned tothe message object 1120 in a kind of “real-time” fashion in the sensethat, a token is passed to the message object 1120 directly after itscorresponding one or more elements are read from the XML message body2522 and abstracted up to the token level that the protocol 2516_1expects.

In a further implementation, the default token reader 2501 reads themessage body 2522 elements in the same order in which they are listedwithin the message body. As a consequence, tokens can be passed to themessage object 2520 in the same order in which they are listed withinthe message body 2522. Therefore, according to one implementation, thecall 1 from the message object 2520 is simply a “next” call that isproperly responded to 9 by the dispatching token reader 2530 with thenext element in the message body tokenized at the level of abstractionthat the protocol 2516_1 expects to see in the message object 2520. Thetransport binding object 2518_1 then writes the next element into thecontext 2514_1.

Assuming that the call 1 from the message object 2520 is for the firsttoken to be extracted from the message body 2522, the dispatching tokenreader 2530 will invoke 2 the default token reader 2501 and the defaulttoken reader 2501 will then begin to read the message body's text andprovide 3 an object-oriented stream containing element start tokens,element end tokens, element attribute tokens and element character datatokens. According to an implementation, the dispatching token reader2530 analyzes the token stream provided by the default token reader2501.

As a general description of the process executed by the dispatchingtoken reader 2530, for each token received by the dispatching tokenreader 2530, the dispatching token reader 2530 will identify whether ornot the token is registered within the dispatching token reader'sregistry. If so, the dispatching token reader will dispatch (e.g.,“redirect”) the token to the wrapper token reader that the registryidentifies as being designed to handle the token. If no instance of thewrapper token reader has been created the dispatching token reader willfirst request a wrapper token reader factory object 1140 to create aninstance of the wrapper token reader and then dispatch the token to thenewly created wrapper token reader instance.

In the case of the example being presently discussed, no wrapper tokenreader instances are assumed to exist at the time of the call 1 from themessage object 2520 because the call 1 is the initial call made for themessage body 2522. Moreover, assuming the initial element in the messagebody corresponds to the XML address element 2300 depicted in FIG. 23,the stream of tokens 2411 thru 2422 depicted in FIG. 24 will be theinitial token stream provided 3 by the default token reader 2501.Moreover, as discussed with respect to FIGS. 22 through 24, assume thata first wrapper token reader is used to consolidate the address nametokens 2413 thru 2415, the address city tokens 2416 thru 2418 and theaddress postal code tokens 2419 thru 2421 into tokens 2430, 2431 and2432, respectively; and, that a second wrapper token reader is used toconsolidate tokens 2411, 2412, 2422, 2430, 2431 and 2432 into token2440.

According to this example, the dispatching token reader 2530 will firstreceive tokens 2411 and 2412 from the default token reader 2501. Thesetokens 2411, 2412 will be registered with the dispatching token reader2530 as being properly processed by the second token reader wrapperdescribed above (i.e., the “address element” token reader_2 thatultimately will provide token 2440 to the message object 2520). Becausetokens 2411, 2412 represent the first tokens to appear from the messagebody 2522, no wrapper token reader instances have been manufactured forthe particular message body being tokenized.

As such, the dispatching token reader 2530 will invoke 4 the wrapperfactory 2440 in order to create an instance 2505 of the second tokenreader_2. After the second token reader_2 instance 2505 is created, thedispatching token reader 2530 will forward 5 tokens 2411, 2412 to thesecond token reader_2 2505. At this point, the second token reader_22505 still needs tokens 2430, 2431, 2432 and 2422 before it can generatetoken 2440 for the message object 2520. Note that, in an implementation,the factory object 2540 is used to support the simultaneous messageprocessing activity of multiple runtime framework instances that run “inparallel”, while, the dispatching token reader 2530 is dedicated to theparticular runtime framework instance that message object 2520corresponds to.

After the second wrapper token reader_2 instance 2505 has been createdand tokens 2411 and 2412 have been passed to this reader 2505, thedispatching token reader 2530 will begin to process the token streamprovided by the default token reader 2501 starting from token 2413(address name start element item) and thereafter. Upon the dispatchingtoken reader's receipt of token 2413, the dispatching token reader 2530will recognize that: 1) the first wrapper token reader_1 is registeredas being the proper wrapper token reader for processing token 2413; and,2) an instance of the first wrapper token reader_1 needs to be created(for essentially the same reasons expressed above). As such, thedispatching token reader 2530 will again invoke 4 the factory object2540 in order to create an instance 2503 of the first wrapper tokenreader_1. After the first wrapper token reader_1 instance 2503 iscreated, the dispatching token reader 2530 will forward 6 to it token2413.

The dispatching token reader 2530 will then receive tokens 2414, 2415which will subsequently be dispatched 6 to the first wrapper tokenreader_1 2503. After token 2415 is dispatched 6 to the first wrappertoken reader_1 2503, the first wrapper token reader_1 2503 will generatetoken 2430 and forward 7 it to the dispatching token reader 2530. Thedispatching token reader 2530 will check its registry, identify wrappertoken reader_2 2505 as the appropriate wrapper token reader for thattoken, and forward 5 token 2430 to wrapper token reader_2 as aconsequence. The same kind of process then repeats for tokens 2416 thru2418 (being dispatched from the default token reader 2501 to the firstwrapper token reader_12503), and, token 2431 (being dispatched from thefirst wrapper token reader 2501 to the second wrapper token reader_22505). The same kind of process again repeats for tokens 2419 thru 2421(being dispatched from the default token reader 2501 to the firstwrapper token reader_1 2503), and, token 2432 (being dispatched from thefirst wrapper token reader 2501 to the second wrapper token reader_22505).

Token 2422 is then forwarded 3 from the default token reader 2501 to thedispatching token reader 2530 which in turn dispatches 5 token 2422 tothe second wrapper token reader_2 2505 (based on its registryinformation). The second wrapper token reader_2, at this point, hascollected all tokens needed to generate token 2440. Token 2440 is sent 8to the dispatching token reader 2530. Here, no entry is listed in theregistry for token 2440, and, the dispatching token reader 2530 forwards9 token 2440 to the received message object 2520 as a consequence.

Upon the received message object 2520 receiving token 2440, the receivedmessage object 2520 will send a second “next” call to the dispatchingtoken reader 2530 and writes token 2440 into the context 2515_1. Aprocess that follows the structure of the process described just abovewill be performed (resulting in the second token being given to themessage object 2520). Eventually the entire message body will beprocessed and its contents, tokenized at the level expected by theprotocol 2516_1 and as abstracted by the wrapper token readers will bepresent in the message object 2520. According to one implementation, thetokens presented to the message object 2520 are in byte array or stringform and therefore are placed into a serialized portion of the context914.

FIG. 25 b depicts a reverse architecture for serializing responsemessage body content in the outbound direction. Here, a high level tokenrepresenting a high level “parent” element is passed 1 from the messageobject 2422 to a dispatching token writer 9210. The dispatching tokenwriter 9210 checks a registry and, if a registry entry exists for thetoken received from the response message object 2524, identifies thewrapper token writer that expands the token into a collection of tokens(e.g., wrapper token writer_2 2515). The dispatching token writer 9210causes 2 an instance of the wrapper token writer to be created by afactory 9220 if the token passed 1 by the message object 2524 is thefirst token for the outbound message body to involve the wrapper tokenwriter.

The token received at 1 by the dispatching token writer 9210 is thenpassed 3 to the newly created wrapper token writer 2515, which, in turn,generates an expanded collection of tokens from the initial token. Theexpanded tokens are sent 4 to the dispatching token writer 9210. Thosethat have no entry in the registry (if any) are directed 5 to thedefault token writer 2521. Those that have a registry entry are directedto 6 the next, lower level wrapper token writer. The process repeatsuntil the token originally passed 1 by the response message object 2524is completely broken down and written into the textual (e.g., XML)message body by the default token writer 2521.

Note that for both de-serialization (inbound) and serialization(outbound) processes, additional wrapper token readers may beimplemented at the “top” of a processing chain of wrapper tokenreaders/writers to perform more substantive functions beyond mere tokenconsolidation/expansion. For instance, in the case of the WS Securityprotocol, a wrapper token reader could be implemented to actuallyperform decryption(unscrambling of message body content)/encryption(scrambling of message body content) and/or signature checking/writing.

Transport Binding

As discussed at various points above, the transport binding object 618is largely responsible for orchestrating the conversion of a message'scontent between its transported form and the object orientedrepresentation of such content. Specifically, at process 704 of FIG. 7,the transport binding object 618 detects the message key for the message(by analyzing the output stream of a token reader) and looks up theendpoint method information_from the Web services data 613; at process708 of FIG. 7, the transport binding object 618 generates the inputparameters for the endpoint method (again, by analyzing the outputstream of a token reader). At process 710 of FIG. 7, the transportbinding object 618 orchestrates the use of a token writer between themessage body portion 926 of the response object 924 and the actual textbased response message 623. For the processing of message headerinformation, the transport binding: 1) orchestrates the use of a DOMreader between the header of the text based received message 622 and theheader portion of the received message object 923; and, 2) orchestratesthe use of a DOM writer between the header portion of the responsemessage object 924 and the header of the text based response message623.

FIG. 26 shows an architecture for performing a basic message keyidentification process with a dispatching token reader. According to thebasic architecture of FIG. 26, the message key information is containedwithin an element within the received message body 2622. A wrapper tokenreader 2603 is designed to process tokens from the default token reader2601 that corresponds to the message key element. As such, using adispatching token reader based embodiment as an example, the only tokensthat are registered with the dispatching token reader 2630 are thosethat are generated from the message key element within the message keybody 2622. When tokens from the message key element are forwarded fromthe default token reader 2601 to the dispatching token reader 2630, thedispatching token reader 2630 will forward them to the wrapper tokenreader 2603 which will then produce a higher level token containing themessage key information.

In an embodiment, the Web service is structured such that the messagekey element is the first element in the message body. As a consequence,the initial tokens to be produced by the default token reader 2601 willpertain to the message key element. The dispatching token reader 2630will cause an instance of the token reader 2603 to be created by factory2640 and then dispatch the tokens to the created wrapper token reader2603. Because the message key element is the first element in thereceived message body, the message key information will be contained bythe first token that is presented 2 to the transport binding 2618 inresponse to the transport binding's first “next” call 1 made to thedispatching token reader 2630.

If the message key is not the first element in the message body, thetransport binding 2618 may have to run through a series of “next” callsto the dispatching token reader 2630 before it receives the token havingthe message key information (because the dispatching token reader 2630will forward to the transport binding 2618 any tokens that are notidentified in its registry). The initial returned tokens that do notpertain to the message key element are simply dropped and/or ignored bythe transport binding 2618. Eventually, a “next” call will be respondedto with the token having the message key information.

In an alternate implementation, all tokens that could be produced by thedefault token reader 2601 are registered with the dispatching tokenreader 2630 so that all tokens from the default token reader 2601 aredispatched to the wrapper token reader 2603. In this case, the wrappertoken reader 2603 is designed to ignore/drop all tokens that do notpertain to the message key element and create a higher level token fromthose tokens that were generated from the message key element. Accordingto this design approach, the transport binding 2618 only has to make asingle “next” call to the dispatching token reader 2630 regardless ofwhere the message key is located within the message body.

In another approach, a dispatching token reader is not used and insteada wrapper chain is used as discussed above with respect to FIG. 22. Inone basic wrapper chain implementation, a single message key wrapper isused to determine the message key from the token stream provided by thedefault token reader. In the most basic implementation, no wrapper tokenreader exists. As a consequence the transport binding 2618 isresponsible for comprehending the highly granularized token streamprovided by the default token reader and extracting the message keyinformation from it.

Regardless of the manner in which the message key information isobtained, after it is obtained by the transport binding object 2618, thetransport binding object 2618 uses the message key to look up from theWeb services data 613, 2613 information specific to the endpoint methodthat is appropriate for responding to the content of the receivedmessage body (e.g., 1) the name of the method; 2) the order and type ofthe objects that the method accepts as input parameters; 3) the type ofobject that the method returns; and, 4) the exceptions that the methodmay throw in the case of a fault condition) and uses this information(along with the endpoint classloader as described below) to generateinput parameter objects for the endpoint method. The input parameterobjects are then generated and provided to the runtime object 2611. Notethat, for any of the approaches discussed above, the message key elementcould be contained in the message header. The message key informationcan still be successfully obtained as long as the default token readeranalyzes the message header (instead of or in addition to the messagebody).

FIG. 27 depicts an architecture for the endpoint method input parameterextraction process. In a service provider side implementation, alongwith the endpoint method information being provided to the transportbinding object 2718 by the web service data, the runtime object 2711retrieves the identity of the endpoint and its container (i.e., the“implementation container”) from the Web service data 2713. The runtimeobject 2711 uses this information to fetch both an instance of theimplementation container 706 and the endpoint's classloader 707(referring briefly to FIG. 7) and then provides the endpoint'sclassloader to the transport binding object 2718. After the transportbinding 2718 has been provided with the information specific to theendpoint method and the endpoint's classloader, the transport bindingobject 2718 creates instances of objects to be used as input parametersfor the endpoint method. Essentially, the classloader is used toidentify a class object for each input parameter object instance to becreated. Each such class object is then used to create an “empty” inputparameter object instance. Each empty input parameter instance is“filled” with appropriate input parameter information that the transportbinding object 2718 identifies from the received message body 2722.

The transport binding object 2718 then provides the filled inputparameter object instances to the context 914. In order to fill theinput parameter object instances with their corresponding information,in one approach, the transport binding object 2718 uses a default tokenreader 2701 to deserialize from text to object-oriented form at leastthose portions of the received message body 2722 that correspond to theendpoint method's input information. According to an implementation, theWeb service defines its communication semantics such that any parameterthat can be received in a message body and used as an input parameterfor an endpoint method must be represented in the message body as aseparate element having a name defined by the Web service. The name ofthe element must map directly to the name of the input parameter used bythe endpoint method.

Therefore, once the transport binding 2718 has identified the names ofthe parameters from the method specific information it received from theWeb services data, the transport binding 2718 merely has to look forelements in the message body 2722 having the same names. In animplementation, as depicted in FIG. 27, the transport binding receivesthe highly granularized stream of tokens from the default token reader2701. The transport binding object 2718 essentially looks for startelement tokens having one of the looked for names of the endpoint methodparameters. The transport binding 2718 consolidates tokens for a sameinput parameter (e.g., a start element token, character data token andend element token for a particular input parameter) and, once itrecognizes the complete element is in its possession, fills the “blank”object instance reserved for the input parameter with the element'ssubstantive content. When all the elements pertaining to the looked forinput arguments are found and their corresponding input parameterobjects are filled, the input arguments are provided to the context. Inalternative implementations one or more wrapper token readers could beused (in a chain as described above with respect to FIG. 22, or, with adispatching token reader as described above with respect to FIGS. 25a,b) to process the output stream from the default token reader 2701 andprovide the transport binding 2718 with specific input parameter values(which the transport binding fills into their corresponding inputparameter objects). In an implementation, the input parameter objectinstances are “string” objects (e.g., akin to a serialized byte array)in order to support their later use as input arguments for the endpointmethod. In a further implementation, the context 914 is partitioned intoa serialized sub-section whose contents are persisted duringhibernation, and, the string input parameter objects are written intothis partition for convenience/consistency.

The transport binding also, as depicted at process 702 of FIG. 7,generates a received message object 920 (of FIG. 9) for the context 614that is later “filled in” with details derived from the actual contentof the message to be processed (as discussed above with respect to FIGS.22 and 25 a). Here, the transport binding deals with the structure ofthe received message body, and, therefore, in an implementation, hasaccess to a classfile that produces the message object 920 for theparticular type of message that the received message corresponds to(e.g., SOAP, MIME, DIME, etc.). During the initial building 702 of thecontext 614, the received message object that is loaded into the context614 is akin to an “empty template” whose structure is consistent withthe received message type (e.g., a header portion and a body portion fora SOAP message) but whose substantive content is empty or “blank” (i.e.,no specific items of data from the received message are in the messageobject).

In the case of serializing the object oriented representation of theresponse message body (previously depicted as the body 926 portion ofthe response message object 924 in FIG. 9), any of the followingarchitectures could be used: 1) the transport binding object 2818invokes a single default token writer (depicted in FIG. 28) and conveysresponse message content from the response message body object 2824 tothe default token writer 2821; 2) the transport binding object invokes achain of token writers that include at least one wrapper token writer(e.g., akin to the reverse of architecture of FIG. 22) and conveysresponse message content from response message body object 2826 to thewrapper token writer chain; 3) the transport binding object invokes adispatching token writer (e.g., akin to the reverse of architecture ofFIG. 25 b) and conveys response message content from response messagebody object 2826 to the dispatching token writer. In the later approach,wrapper token writers may or may not exist.

In an implementation the transport binding is also stateless so that itcan easily be reapplied from process to process. Here, recall from FIGS.6 and 7 that the transport binding is initially used to create 702 themessage objects 920, 920. Some state information maintained by thetransport binding is created at this time that involves the type ofmessage that the message objects represent (e.g., whether the messageobjects use BinaryXML or XML 1.0 formatting so that the proper defaulttoken reader can be invoked). By making the transport binding stateless,such state information can be externally written from the transportbinding object into the context prior to hibernation. Upon wake up fromhibernation, the state information is re-loaded from the context backinto the transport binding object.

Closing Comments

Processes taught by the discussion above may be performed with programcode such as machine-executable instructions that cause a machine thatexecutes these instructions to perform certain functions. In thiscontext, a “machine” may be a machine that converts intermediate form(or “abstract”) instructions into processor specific instructions (e.g.,an abstract execution environment such as a “virtual machine” (e.g., aJava Virtual Machine), an interpreter, a Common Language Runtime, ahigh-level language virtual machine, etc.)), and/or, electroniccircuitry disposed on a semiconductor chip (e.g., “logic circuitry”implemented with transistors) designed to execute instructions such as ageneral-purpose processor and/or a special-purpose processor. Processestaught by the discussion above may also be performed by (in thealternative to a machine or in combination with a machine) electroniccircuitry designed to perform the processes (or a portion thereof)without the execution of program code.

It is believed that processes taught by the discussion above may also bedescribed in source level program code in various object-orientated ornon-object-orientated computer programming languages (e.g., Java, C#,VB, Python, C, C++, J#, APL, Cobol, Fortran, Pascal, Perl, etc.)supported by various software development frameworks (e.g., MicrosoftCorporation's .NET, Mono, Java, Oracle Corporation's Fusion etc.). Thesource level program code may be converted into an intermediate form ofprogram code (such as Java byte code, Microsoft Intermediate Language,etc.) that is understandable to an abstract execution environment (e.g.,a Java Virtual Machine, a Common Language Runtime, a high-level languagevirtual machine, an interpreter, etc.).

According to various approaches the abstract execution environment mayconvert the intermediate form program code into processor specific codeby, 1) compiling the intermediate form program code (e.g., at run-time(e.g., a JIT compiler)), 2) interpreting the intermediate form programcode, or 3) a combination of compiling the intermediate form programcode at run-time and interpreting the intermediate form program code.Abstract execution environments may run on various operating systems(such as UNIX, LINUX, Microsoft operating systems including the Windowsfamily, Apple Computers operating systems including MacOS X,Sun/Solaris, OS/2, Novell, etc.).

An article of manufacture may be used to store program code. An articleof manufacture that stores program code may be embodied as, but is notlimited to, one or more memories (e.g., one or more flash memories,random access memories (static, dynamic or other)), optical disks,CD-ROMs, DVD ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards or othertype of machine-readable media suitable for storing electronicinstructions. Program code may also be downloaded from a remote computer(e.g., a server) to a requesting computer (e.g., a client) by way ofdata signals embodied in a propagation medium (e.g., via a communicationlink (e.g., a network connection)).

FIG. 29 shows an embodiment of a computing system (e.g., a computer).The exemplary computing system of FIG. 29 includes: 1) one or moreprocessors 2901; 2) a memory control hub (MCH) 2902; 3) a system memory2903 (of which different types exist such as DDR RAM, EDO RAM, etc,); 4)a cache 2904; 5) an I/O control hub (ICH) 2905; 6) a graphics processor2906; 7) a display/screen 2907 (of which different types exist such asCathode Ray Tube (CRT), Thin Film Transistor (TFT), Liquid CrystalDisplay (LCD), DPL, etc.; 8) one or more I/O devices 2908.

The one or more processors 2901 execute instructions in order to performwhatever software routines the computing system implements. Theinstructions frequently involve some sort of operation performed upondata. Both data and instructions are stored in system memory 2903 andcache 2904. Cache 2904 is typically designed to have shorter latencytimes than system memory 2903. For example, cache 2904 might beintegrated onto the same silicon chip(s) as the processor(s) and/orconstructed with faster SRAM cells whilst system memory 2903 might beconstructed with slower DRAM cells. By tending to store more frequentlyused instructions and data in the cache 2904 as opposed to the systemmemory 2903, the overall performance efficiency of the computing systemimproves.

System memory 2903 is deliberately made available to other componentswithin the computing system. For example, the data received from variousinterfaces to the computing system (e.g., keyboard and mouse, printerport, LAN port, modem port, etc.) or retrieved from an internal storageelement of the computing system (e.g., hard disk drive) are oftentemporarily queued into system memory 2903 prior to their being operatedupon by the one or more processor(s) 2901 in the implementation of asoftware program. Similarly, data that a software program determinesshould be sent from the computing system to an outside entity throughone of the computing system interfaces, or stored into an internalstorage element, is often temporarily queued in system memory 2903 priorto its being transmitted or stored.

The ICH 2905 is responsible for ensuring that such data is properlypassed between the system memory 2903 and its appropriate correspondingcomputing system interface (and internal storage device if the computingsystem is so designed). The MCH 2902 is responsible for managing thevarious contending requests for system memory 2903 access amongst theprocessor(s) 2901, interfaces and internal storage elements that mayproximately arise in time with respect to one another.

One or more I/O devices 2908 are also implemented in a typical computingsystem. I/O devices generally are responsible for transferring data toand/or from the computing system (e.g., a networking adapter); or, forlarge scale non-volatile storage within the computing system (e.g., harddisk drive). ICH 2905 has bi-directional point-to-point links betweenitself and the observed I/O devices 2908.

In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however,be evident that various modifications and changes may be made theretowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the appended claims. The specification and drawings are,accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictivesense.

1. A method, comprising: processing a Web services message within anobject oriented runtime environment, said processing comprising:executing a plurality of protocols to support a Web service that saidmessage pertains to, each one of said protocols performing one or moreoperations that contribute to a different part of said processing, saidexecuting being hibernated by storing state information of saidprotocols externally from said protocols, said executing being resumedby loading said saved state information back into said protocols;identifying a message key within said message and using said message keyto identify an endpoint method for said message; and, executing saidendpoint method to generate a response message to said message.
 2. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising: invoking, from an object, a WebServices endpoint method to process said message by: invoking said WebServices endpoint method through a first interface according to anendpoint method invocation format, said Web Services endpoint methodimplemented with a component that is provided one or more services by acontainer; and,
 3. The method of claim 2 further comprising processing asecond Web services message by invoking, from said object, a second WebServices endpoint method to process a second message by: invoking saidsecond Web Services endpoint method through a second interface accordingto said endpoint method invocation format, said second Web Servicesendpoint method implemented with a second component that is provided oneor more services by a second container, said container and secondcontainer having respective interfaces that are different.
 4. The methodof claim 1 wherein said method is executed at a Web services provider.5. The method of claim 1 wherein said method is executed at a Webservices consumer.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprisinggenerating an input parameter for said endpoint method by: identifyingsaid input parameter by analyzing a classloader for a software componentthat implements said endpoint method; and, analyzing said message for anelement containing a value to assign to said input parameter.
 7. Themethod of claim 1 wherein said endpoint method is identified byreferring to data maintained for said Web service that correlatesmessage keys of messages supported by said Web service to endpointmethods performed by said Web service.
 8. The method of claim 1 whereinsaid data is cached.
 9. An article of manufacture including program codewhich, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform amethod, the method, comprising: processing a Web services message withinan object oriented runtime environment, said processing comprising:executing a plurality of protocols to support a Web service that saidmessage pertains to, each one of said protocols performing one or moreoperations that contribute to a different part of said processing, saidexecuting being hibernated by storing state information of saidprotocols externally from said protocols, said executing being resumedby loading said saved state information back into said protocols;identifying a message key within said message and using said message keyto identify an endpoint method for said message; and, executing saidendpoint method to generate a response message to said message.
 10. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 9 further comprising: invoking, from anobject, a Web Services endpoint method to process said message by:invoking said Web Services endpoint method through a first interfaceaccording to an endpoint method invocation format, said Web Servicesendpoint method implemented with a component that is provided one ormore services by a container; and,
 11. The article of manufacture ofclaim 10 further comprising processing a second Web services message byinvoking, from said object, a second Web Services endpoint method toprocess a second message by: invoking said second Web Services endpointmethod through a second interface according to said endpoint methodinvocation format, said second Web Services endpoint method implementedwith a second component that is provided one or more services by asecond container, said container and second container having respectiveinterfaces that are different.
 12. The article of manufacture of claim 9wherein said method is executed at a Web services provider.
 13. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 9 wherein said method is executed at aWeb services consumer.
 14. The article of manufacture of claim 9 furthercomprising generating an input parameter for said endpoint method by:identifying said input parameter by analyzing a classloader for asoftware component that implements said endpoint method; and, analyzingsaid message for an element containing a value to assign to said inputparameter.
 15. The article of manufacture of claim 9 wherein saidendpoint method is identified by referring to data maintained for saidWeb service that correlates message keys of messages supported by saidWeb service to endpoint methods performed by said Web service.
 16. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 9 wherein said data is cached.
 17. Acomputing system comprising a machine, said computing system alsocomprising instructions disposed on a computer readable medium, saidinstructions capable of being executed by said machine to perform amethod, said method, comprising: processing a Web services messagewithin an object oriented runtime environment, said processingcomprising: executing a plurality of protocols to support a Web servicethat said message pertains to, each one of said protocols performing oneor more operations that contribute to a different part of saidprocessing, said executing being hibernated by storing state informationof said protocols externally from said protocols, said executing beingresumed by loading said saved state information back into saidprotocols; identifying a message key within said message and using saidmessage key to identify an endpoint method for said message; and,executing said endpoint method to generate a response message to saidmessage.
 18. The computing system of claim 17 wherein said method isexecuted at a Web services provider.
 19. The computing system of claim17 wherein said method is executed at a Web services consumer.
 20. Thecomputing system of claim 17 further comprising generating an inputparameter for said endpoint method by: identifying said input parameterby analyzing a classloader for a software component that implements saidendpoint method; and, analyzing said message for an element containing avalue to assign to said input parameter.